April 29, 2011

Finally - the sun!

Almost at the end of our time in St. Louis now, and still haven’t got everything done. But it’s been wonderful to touch base with people here! It is, of course, going to be hard to leave again, but it’s worth it to see them again. I generally try not to include information about our friends in our blog because I don’t want make assumptions about what they do or do not want published. So it’s hard to describe how good it has been to be here, and how much we have both enjoyed our Midwest friends. This week I met with some folks from my last “real” job at Enterprise Rent A Car, and I can’t describe how good it was to see them again. Everyone there is just as nice and sweet as ever - that is a great bunch of people and Enterprise is lucky to have them.

For those not familiar with St. Louis, I can’t begin to cover all the good stuff here. On this trip we have been so busy that we haven’t visited our favorite sites such as Forrest Park, or even The Hill! The one thing we did get to do was go to Sourlard’s Market. It’s an old-fashioned farmers market, open year round, but it really hits its stride in the spring. Best place ever to people-watch! People show up in jeans, dresses, saris and burqas, and I think I’ve heard every language and dialect in the world in it’s aisles. It's famous for fresh vegetables but you can get other things there, too. For example, one of meat stores offers choriza, wesswurst, turtle meat, frog legs, alligator tail, bison jerky and shark. Needless to say, Soulard’s is one of Randy’s favorite places to shop.

Randy is off fishing in Mexico and we will have to head to Nova Scotia the day after he gets back, so I am starting to pack up the RV to move again. When we settle in a place for awhile we can put out the breakables and spread out a little, but everything has to go back in its place before the wheels can turn. At least I don’t have to work in the rain!

April 25, 2011

Wow, we’ve been so busy since we got to St. Louis! We had a big list of things we need to get done while we are here, and it’s now apparent that we are going to run out of time. But recently it’s been difficult to find things in the RV, and items have been piling up ever corner. So we absolutely had to make time to clean out every bay, drawer, cabinet and closet. That took a lot of time but it’s finally done. And worth the effort, because it made the RV livable again.

For the rest, there are trips to doctors and insurance agents, much-anticipated visits with family and friends, and preparing for an Ivory jewelry party that one of my dear friends is giving for me. We have a list of RV renovations we hoped to do, but something had to be cut of the to-do list, so we dropped those. We can update the RV later, but we don't have too many opportunities to meet up with our friends in the area.

We visited Randy’s sister and my mom, and went to see Randy's brother Lonnie and his wife Chris. They have the most amazing collection of fossils and rocks, and now that we’ve got a little room in the RV, I can get a few! They also have a very big dog, who, despite the look she gave us, let us stay...

Last week, for the first time in all the time we’ve been at the St. Louis RV Park, the weather was bad enough for us to head for shelter. We bundled the cats and dogs into a couple of carriers and went to the RV park shower building. About 6 couples took shelter there, several with their pets. Since Sugarbaby and Julienne are not very social, I put their kennels in one of the shower rooms and shut the door. They weren’t happy, but at least it muffled the barking!

Next, a visit to my Mom. She is not thrilled that it’s been a year and a half since my last visit, and I feel the same way. I’ve visited her a couple of times this month, and Saturday she and Randy were going to catch a plane to California, to visit our relatives there. Who knew that the St. Louis airport would be hit by a tornado the night before? So Saturday we drove to Kansas City so she could catch her plane.

And today I went to Enterprise to touch base with some of the wonderful people I used to work with. I don't miss work, but I do miss them.