Win # 3!

First a couple of responses/comments on comments and emails received:

First, we love to have ya’ll following our adventures and love your comments and questions so keep them coming.

Jan, we love to hear from you and are hoping we will figure out a way to cross paths again in the near future. For the rest of you, when you see comments from Jan, she and her husband Wes were folks we met at the Life on Wheels Conference even before we had our motorhome. Jan does a great blog of her own following their adventures and you can reach it from our favorite links on the left side of this page.

For the person who asked for more pictures…we’ll try!! We seem to forget to carry our camera lately at all the wrong times!!

Regarding the anonymous question on what we plan to do once the boys have lives of their own….the boys really have lives of their own now. They haven’t lived at home for years but they know we are there for them when they want us around, like helping Kyle with his house or following Trevor and his football team. We come from environments where family activities have always been central and we are blessed that both our guys still feel strongly about that as adults. For example, one sticking point on going ‘full-time’ is how we would handle the Christmas holidays since the tradition of having family gatherings of aunts, uncles, cousins at our house is something both boys want to hold on to. It’s foundational and comforting to have some things remain the same when the rest of your world is always changing. In this same vein, we are not sure we are ready to sell the house. Ken designed the house on piece of graph paper when the boys were still too young to remember so it’s the only home they’ve ever known. So it’s more than just ‘sticks n bricks’ to the 4 of us. Once Trevor is settled with a job after college, it’s possible we might feel differently. We still have unlimited possibilities and nothing is set in stone – how wonderful to have such freedom.

Now, to the latest week’s adventures…

On Wednesday, Sept. 16th, we left Charleston, IL, on our way to Cape Girardeau, MO for Trevor’s next game against Southeast Missouri State (SEMO).

We stopped one night along the way at Beaver Dam State Park and had Kyle, Jenni and Staley out for dinner at the rig. Ken did his usual great job with grilled Salmon, cabbage and our attempt at replicating the grilled corn/black bean/pepper combination that we loved at the Saathoff Café.

‘Grandpa’ Kenny also took some time to give Staley some leash training.

Thursday morning we hooked up early and then left the rig in the Beaver Dam parking area

while we had breakfast in their restaurant that overlooks the lake.

We were able to watch a Heron hunt for his morning fish while I had my oatmeal and Ken indulged in the ‘big breakfast’. (Living 24/7 with a guy who can consume unlimited calories and still stay skinny—doesn’t make it easy on my waistline).

Ken hates anything close to city traffic but was a bit hesitant to do the 2-lanes along the river because, despite having been reviewed as the top GPS for RVers, our ‘CoPilot’ software does not give us overpass clearances and he was worries about that on roads smaller than US highways. We took I-255 to avoid St. Louis traffic and then came down I-55 on the Missouri side of the Mississippi.

We were communicating with Trevor off and on during the trip and were glad to find out that MRI showed ‘maybe’ a slight labrum tear but that doctors felt it was not something that would require surgery and that with restricted practices, a tight shoulder brace, a limited playing time, he should be able to get back on the field for the SEMO game. What really had him torqued what that because of this they had taken away his starting spot for the game.

Because Ken’s brother Alan and his wife Nancy were going to travel over from Springfield, MO and camp with us, we made reservations at Trail of Tears State Park where we’d stayed before and had good experience.

As last time, our sites had great views of the Mississippi River.
What we hadn’t remembered was just how close we were to the train tracks that run between the river and the campground. The first night we counted 4 trains while we were trying to sleep. I thought Ken was sleeping but after a Northbound train sounded like it was about to come through our bedroom, Ken simply turned over, smiled at me and said ‘Missed’!!

Ken made blueberry pancakes for breakfast and then I prepared his famous Italian Sausage Soup for afternoon tailgating.

By mid-afternoon we had a full-fledged tailgate party going on with Ken’s brother David and his wife, Cindy, arriving from St. Louis, out niece Erin and her husband Casey coming down from Carbondale, IL, and, of course, Kyle and Jenni driving down from Carlinville.

Sox, as usual, got more than her fair share of attention from Erin.
A few hours before 6pm game time we piled in to vehicles and made the 10 mile drive in to Houck Stadium.

After enjoying a little more Panther Club tailgating hospitality at the tent outside the gates, we went through the routine of picking up our tickets. Trevor was able to get everyone ‘player tickets’ since many players did not have family members travelling to this game. Thanks to all Trev’s teammates who ‘hosted’ his family members this game!

Our seats were directly behind our defensive line bench.

Kyle and Ken were really in to this since they could pick up a lot of what the coaches were telling the guys during the game.

The game was actually much closer than it should have been. While we won 23-14, our offense turned over the ball 4 times on fumbles inside the 25 yard line. That is not something that will win us an OVC championship.

Trevor played most of the game so apparently the ‘restricted playing’ time sort of went out the window when the game was unexpectedly close. He had 6 tackles with one 3 yard tackle for loss.

The guys came over to sing their victory song to their travelling fans after the game.

After the game, Cindy and David needed to head out for their trip back to St. Louis but the rest of us stayed around to visit with Trevor. By the time he came back out he already had removed the shoulder pads and brace since it was so tight it was really restricting his breathing and movement. That certainly wasn’t evident by the way he played on the field but he attributes that to adrenaline.

We decided to get a late dinner and so with two vehicles both with Tom-Tom’s pointed to the nearest Cracker Barrel we wove our way through Cape Girardeau. Kyle, Jenni, Erin and Casey got totally lost but seemed to have a great time on the journey anyway!

At about 10:30pm we left Cracker Barrel with Erin and Casey heading back to Carbondale and Alan, Nancy, Kyle, Jenni, Ken and I headed back to Trail of Tears in Alan’s truck. Trail of Tears is ‘closed’ after 10pm so Ken had gotten the gate access codes so we could come in after hours.
Everyone was zonked by the time we got to the RV’s and quickly tucked in for the night.

Ken made breakfast for everyone the next morning. By early afternoon everyone was on their way and we were back to having the campground almost all to ourselves with Kyle and Jenni headed to the Cardinals vs. Cubs game in St. Louis and Alan and Nancy on their way to Quincy for some more family visiting.

Stay tuned…we are now travelling to Clarksville, TN, where the EIU team will be looking to extend their record to 4-0 against Austin Peay.

Hugs, C