A Visit From Good Friends

After the Christening, Cindy returned to work in Farmington Hills and on Monday I drove home to Quincy for a week of appointments. I had eye and doctor appointments and the dogs had a grooming appointment . Then on Thursday evening I drove to St. Louis to pick up Cindy. On Friday we got our chores done in anticipation of visits from our son and daughter-in-law Kyle and Jenni, and from our good friends Jim and Dee.

Kyle and Jenni were in town to participate in a fund raiser sponsored by Jenni’s parents and to see Jenni’s brothers. Jim and Dee came to see us since we were not going to be able to see them later in the year. We had both planned to meet at “camping with Lisa” in October but for both of us it was no longer possible. Camping with Lisa is a blast, I am going to miss seeing everyone there. Lisa and Tony are great hosts and even better people.

Jim and Dee arrived late morning on Saturday. After chatting over home made chicken and wild rice soup we took Jim and Dee for a tour of Quincy. Being history buffs they seemed to really enjoyed visiting the site of one of the Lincoln Douglas Debates.

Another highlight for Dee was a tour of the golf course. Out our backdoor is a public golf course and Dee had never been on a golf course before. We walked two holes showing her the tees, fairways, rough, and greens. She got the biggest kick out of the ball washer. You gotta know Dee!

To end the day we played a game of hand and foot, where Dee and I allowed Cindy and Jim to slaughter us. Here is a picture of Jim and Cindy plotting our demise!

We had a great visit and after breakfast we said goodbye to Jim and Dee and later in the day Kyle and Jenni. Then to bed early as Cindy was flying out of St. Louis on early Monday morning. Alarms set for 4:30 AM.

kp

Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, con’t … Jameson Christening

After setting up at Leisure Lake Trevor stopped by with grandbaby Jameson.

As you can see Grandma was ecstatic! Jameson changes so much between visits, he is quickly becoming a little boy!

We spent the day catching up with Trevor and spoiling Jameson!

On Saturday we went to stock up on groceries and on the way we saw the Goodyear blimp at the Joliet Airport. Besides the big event of Jameson’s Christening the area was also hosting the lesser events of a pro golf tournament and a Nascar race.

On the way to Chicago this weekend I saw the Met Life blimp struggling in the wind. It was vacillating between nose up and nose down and moving side to side. Needless to say it did not look like the comfortable floating on the air image we all have.

Sunday morning we Christened Jameson.

Then had a get together at Grandma Amy’s house.

Near the end of the day Trevor and I delivered Cindy to the airport so she could return to Farmington Hills…Of course her flight was delayed! We received a message that the flight was delayed as we were entering the departure lanes at the airport. She decided to wait it out and only had to wait a couple of hours.

I returned to the RV for the night, driving back to Quincy the next morning.

kp

Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, con’t

On Wednesday afternoon Cindy got to the RV in mid afternoon so we packed up leaving the Cincinnati area and headed for Detroit area. She had an appointment in Farmington Hills near Detroit early in the afternoon on Thursday and again Friday morning. We had planned to drive most of the way Thursday afternoon and evening and stop at a truck stop (again) driving the balance in the morning. At about dark we found a Flying J that had a large parking lot off to the side for RVs.

When your tried and hungry is when you make mistakes. At the Flying J I grabbed the wrong pump putting unleaded fuel in the diesel tank. When I realized my mistake I was sick. We spent the next several hours getting the tank pumped out and refueling with diesel. One good thing was that I realized my mistake before I started the engine, therefore the filters and fuel lines were all ok. The worst part about the whole thing was that after we were done with the RV and were parked in the Flying J, Cindy was unable to get any sleep because of the worry and the noise. One thing I learned was that Coach net emergency road side assistance only covers mechanical beak downs. Now I have Good Sam emergency road side assistance and they said the towing would have been covered.

Shortly after daylight we drove the rest of the way to Farmington Hills and parked the RV at Haas Lake Park. We had time to get cleaned up and meet our neighbors before I drove Cindy to her meeting. Shame on me but I went back to the RV and slept till she called for a ride. Friday the meetings were over at noon so we again hit the road to get ahead of the traffic heading for Chicago.

The campground that we stay at in the Chicago area is actually in Shorwood and is called Leisure Lake. It is a membership campground, but have spaces for rent like a normal campground. It is a gated campground with the office closing at 7:00 and we knew when we left Haas Lake that it would be unlikely that we could get there before they closed. We spent the night at a small campground call Kamp Across From the Dunes in Sawyer MI. arriving early enough to drive to the dunes and site see a bit.

These are some of the dunes along the shore of Lake Michigan and the beach area. We had stayed at the Indiana Dunes State Park a few years ago and this area is very similar. Both are beautiful areas. For dinner, the campground owner recommended a café in the next town just a couple of miles up the road. The name escapes me but the food was excellent and inexpensive, the pie was so good that after sharing a piece we decided that I needed to take a piece back to the RV for a late night snack.

Saturday morning we drove on to Chicago. To our surprise all four lanes on I80 were open making it a easy drive. Later we learned that they had opened I80 for the weekend because of the NASCAR race and the BMW golf tournament that weekend.

Next Blog is all about Jameson!

kp.

Catching up! Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago

Over the next few days I hope to get everyone caught up! I will start with Cincinnati. The Sunday of Labor Day weekend we left for Cincinnati. It is never good traveling on a holiday weekend so after a few phone calls to campgrounds we decided to stay in truck stop. This always creates a problem because I feel more secure in the noisier truck stop and can usually get some sleep and Cindy get little or no sleep, whereas in a Walmart parking lot I won’t sleep because I don’t feel secure and Cindy can sleep. So after I got some sleep and Cindy got a little sleep we pulled up to the truck pumps like we normally do and were told we could not get fuel at the truck pumps because they were commercial only in Indiana. We were told to pull out to the front pumps to get our diesel. The price at the non commercial pumps was almost 40 cents a gallon higher. Learned something new: Don’t Fuel-up In Indiana!! We had enough fuel to get on our way so we stopped down the road further at a Flying J and got enough fuel to get out of Indiana and had breakfast too.

We arrived at our campground mid day as we had planned. We wanted to get there and get setup early enough to drive around northern Cincinnati to find the locations of Cindy’s meetings. From the campground to her offices was only about a twenty minute drive in moderate traffic. Not too bad! We had planned to stay at a campground closer in but they were full. I am glad they were, the campground we stayed in was much nicer and cleaner. We stayed at the Olive Branch Campground in Oregonia OH. It was kind of pricey but we have found that most campgrounds near bigger cities are pricey.

Later that evening Cindy found a café on one of the travel apps that was highly recommended and it was only a couple of miles from the campground. The Little River Café was almost full when we arrived with the parking lot full of bicycles and motorcycles. We had a very nice meal before heading back to the RV and a good nights sleep.

While Cindy was working and attending meetings I got to know our neighbors and the surrounding area. The people I met were great, all of them friendly. The surrounding area (northeast of Cincinnati) is very hilly with small rivers that have become kayak and rafting areas. The roads to these areas are steep with lots of sharp turns. Along these roads you can see the entrances to Y Camps, Church Camps, and Salvation Army Youth Camps.

On Sunday we decided to go to the Cincinnati Zoo. It is the United States second oldest zoo and is in the older part of Cincinnati. Cindy and I enjoy zoos, we like watching the kids as much as watching the animals.

And of course the monkeys:

This group all had diaper rash!

Towards the end of the day at the zoo it started to rain and we cut our visit short but all in all it was a fun day!

We had planned on staying in Cincinnati for at least two weeks but the company had other plans for us. On Wednesday they decided that Cindy needed to be in Detroit on Friday for a meeting…..more to come!

Here We Go!

Since Cindy has gone back to work, I have been placed in charge of the blog. As many of you know I am a terrible speller (I was in Sixth Grade when I learned that it was not git but get) and a hunt and peck typer. So please be patient as it may take me awhile to get the blog going again.

Here We Go!

Cindy began work traveling to Cincinnati for a few days for her orientation and to pick up her work computer and cell phone. After that she spent three weeks in West Palm Beach, and now we are in Cincinnati. At first I stayed home because it did not make sense to travel with her. I would drive her to St Louis to catch her plane on Monday morning and then pick her up late night on Thursday. I also took the RV Beaver Dam State Park to work on Kyle's House while Cindy was away. Now she was sent back to Cincinnati to help on a project here. This time it worked for us to travel with the RV. We left Quincy on Labor Day Sunday spending the night at a Pilot and arriving in Cincinnati Monday afternoon, giving us plenty of time to set up and familiarize ourselves with the area.

Our site at Olive Branch Campground in Oregonia, Ohio

The campground here is just north and east of Cincinnati and Cindy's two work locations are both on the north side of Cincinnati making it a twenty minute drive to work. Nice campground with gravel sites and friendly people.

Since Cindy's last blog we have had visits from both of our sons and daughters in law. The weekend we left Kyle and Jenni were in town for Kyles' 10 year High School Reunion. They had a lot of fun at the reunion and football game. One of the bad things about returning to a work schedule was leaving town while Kyle and Jenni were still at the house and shorting our time together.

The weekend prior to that Trevor and Leah brought Jameson to Quincy to meet his relatives here.

Notice that Aunt Shelia is holding Jameson.. He had lots of loving that day!

While Trevor and Leah slept in the mornings Jameson and Grandpa watched and talked about the humming bird feeding on our flowers and listened to the turtle dove coo to us from the neighbors roof.

Grandma time! Both of them with smiles!

Just too precious!

It took me most of the afternoon to write this blog because I did it all in blogger. I had forgotten how to use live writer and upload the pictures to/from there. I will have to spend some time re-learning them and figure out how to do links etc. I will get it figured out and promise better blogs in the future. For now Cindy seems to like her work and I can relax in the RV and visit with the neighbors. We will be here for two weeks then onto Chicago for Jameson's Christening.

Thank God for spell check...Ken F

Change your thoughts and change your world!