Trevor turns 21!

We stayed in Quincy this weekend since both boys have the next week off and both wanted to spend at last half that time with their friends here.

Since Saturday was Trevor’s 21st birthday Ken thought it also might be wise to stick around in case they needed bail money!!

Trev had started celebrating his birthday early by going out with some guys at midnight Friday night. He got into the house about 3:30am. It looked like at noon on Saturday he had every intention of sleeping his birthday away.

Since we had planned to take him to our family favorite restaurant, El Rancherito, for lunch, we finally were able to pull him together by about 1:30.

We finished the meal off with a toast of tequila shots to celebrate his first time being able to actually order a drink at a restaurant with us.

Then they brought him some fried ice cream and sang happy birthday. Ken reminds me that we don’t really know if that was what they were singing since it was in Spanish!

Trev wanted the 80 Gig iPod so that was his gift from us, along with some accessories so he could hook it to the car speakers and also a arm band attachment so he can use it while working out.

In addition, we gave him his first really good bottle of booz! It’s a bottle of Koskenkorva vodka from Russia. I’m not a big vodka drinker but all the guys from work make a point of picking this up when in Finland since you can’t get it in US. In Finland they serve it by first putting it in the freezer in something like a ½ gallon milk carton of water, When the water is frozen, they peel away the carton and you have this big block of ice with the bottle of vodka in the middle.

We enjoyed steaks on the grill for dinner and then the boys headed out for another evening.

Ken washed the bikes and I took a test ride for a couple miles on mine. He put some new break pads on it when I got back since that seemed to be the only complaint.

Sunday morning, while the guys slept in, I joined the online chat at RV-Dreams with several other RVers. It’s really enjoyable to talk to so many people traveling all over North America. Some have been without a ‘stick house’ for a decade or more, while others like us are still exploring the lifestyle. We all learn so much from each other. I really feel that we are becoming a close community and I can’t wait to meet them all in Branson next June.

We’ve ordered our new inflatable boat. Several RV-dreamers use this same company and have had good luck with the durability and compactness for RVing. Our fill in all the details in a week when it arrives.

With the arrival of Ken’s new drugs, we’ve probably put any additional new toys on hold for a month or two. Can you imagine your are looking at the first two doses of Humira, day 1 and day 15, at a cost of $6000. Thank goodness for health insurance, our part is only $1000. It looks like monthly doses after this month will run about $1000 with our part being $200. Of course, it’s all worth that and more if after 30 years this would be miracle drug to finally help him.

We are also exploring the more all-natural, organic diets being suggested. There are a lot of proponents of variations but they all seem consistent on staying as close to unprocessed, natural foods as possible. After a suggestion from a fellow RV-dreamer, I downloaded the audiobook, The Great Physician’s Rx for Health and Wellness, by Jordan Rubin. While it has more of a religious overtone than I expected, there is also a lot of science here. Rubin was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at 19. Based on the value he per He explains all the processing, chemical and hormone additives and how the contribute to disease.

Sunday we took the ‘steering wheel’ table Ken built to the RV.

I think this table helps take away the look of living in a moving vehicle. It also gives us another end table for chairs. We found a table cloth at Wal-Mart that seems to give that extra homey touch with the right colors.

Ken made it to fold down so it takes no room in the RV when we are moving.

Mid-afternoon, Sunday, Jay Nuessen came by and convinced Trevor to get out of the house and onto the links.

Kyle headed out to play cards with friends and Ken went to pick up Brian Elsworth who is visiting Quincy, to take him to the Quincy Raceway to watch great-nephew James Leffew racing his bomber.

That left me by late afternoon to write this weekend’s blog and enjoy the lovely weather on the patio.

Hugs, C