07/27/09 Getting ready

We have a list of things that need to be done before we leave, and it seems like a huge list!  Probably the most critical thing is insurance. I am looking at various insurance options now.

Over the weekend we went through everything in the RV again, except the storage bins under it. We pulled everything out of the drawers and cabinets, decided if we could get rid of some more, and reorganized. We had a bunch of cooking pans in the storage area under the bed, and that was not working well. We have to lift the mattress to get to that area, so we didn’t use those cooking pans. Now we have winter clothes and Christmas stuff under there, as well as my 2 quilts. I hope to use those quilts again someday but for now, they are safely stored away. We used vacuum bags for the quilts so they don’t take up much space. Randy has found a place for some of my photo albums, so now I need to see if they all fit. I will work on putting most of the pictures onto disk but that will take some time, and I will always have a few things that I want to keep in a book. This weekend we will do the same cleanup and organization for the storage bins under the RV.

Randy has already installed the new bookcase. It looks great, and it holds a TON of books! Randy was able to fit all his cookbooks in it. We don’t have room for any other books there, but that opened up a lot of space elsewhere.  

07/22/09

We are enjoying a very mild summer. We finally pulled up our 2 tomato plants.  They got a few blooms but never produced a single tomato. It turned out they did not have good roots. The chives and flowers in the pots are doing well though.

We biked the Tour de Donut again this year, but it didn’t go well. It started raining hard right after we started. For a few miles I could not see anything. Then, as I was biking up a hill, the chain slipped off the gears of my bike. I fiddled around with it but could not get it to slip back on. Eventually it did go on but by that time, between the rain and the chain and the fact that I hadn’t practiced much, I lost the will to finish it. I met up with Randy at the first stop and we both agreed to stop. We caught a ride back to the starting point on one of the SAG wagons.  We loaded our bikes on the bike rack on the van and rode back inside the van.

We have found a place to spend the winter! It’s just a few miles south of Phoenix, Arizona, called Quail Run RV park. It looks good – pretty area, good weather, a pool and a workout room. I’m looking forward to this now! Randy is going to work 3 days on, then 6 days off.  That should allow us time to get out and see the country around there. We still have a lot to do to get ready. I already told my boss that my last day will be September 3^rd.  

07/10/09 Friends and a Bike accident

It seems I just got swamped at work, with my co-worker quitting and the big release coming up.  

Frank and Kathy Miller stopped by recently (although it was before the family reunion).  This spring they decided to buy a house in Texas and live there half the year, and travel the other half.  They have a lot of friends in this area so they try to stop for a few days when they are near.  They stayed in an RV park in St. Charles, which is just west of St. Louis – not too far. We spent most of a day with them. We went to Pia’s for dinner – that’s an Italian restaurant in St. Charles.  We had a really great meal – fried artichoke hearts and pizza Pia’s makes the best fried artichoke hearts EVER! And it turns out their pizza is really good, too.

While Randy and I were biking with Aaron and Dezina a few weeks ago, Aaron's bike got caught in an old train track and threw him off, hard. He got up but couldn't walk, much less bike. Randy is the best rider among us so he decided to bike back to our RV and return with the car. I think the accident happened on the Missouris side of the McKinley bridge so it was almost 3 miles to the RV park so naturally it took awhile. It started getting dark and we were waiting not in a very good place - no business around, just old buildings. The only people who came by were some guys who looked like they could be trouble; they didn't offer to help so Aaron stood up straight to look like he was someone who could keep Dezina and I safe, although it almost killed him to do it! Randy made it back before total darkness and we loaded Aaron and the bikes in the car. 

When he went in for treatment he learned that his hip was broken; it sort of cracked in two. They put a pin in his knee for a couple of days to keep him in traction, and then decided he didn’t need surgery. He’s getting around OK now but will need to use a walker for a few more weeks. He sure won’t be riding a bike in the Tour De Doughnut this year.  

A couple of weekends ago Randy and I went to Sherrard to visit Lonnie and Chris.  Theresa and Tomm went too, so it was a nice family get-together. Theresa and Tomm stayed in their 5^th-wheel RV, Randy and I stayed in Lonnie’s 5^th- wheel RV, and Lonnie and Chris just stayed in their house, of course. That was a great arrangement but unfortunately a fierce storm blew through and caused a tree limb to break, bringing down the power line. No more air-conditioning! And because Lonnie and Chris get their water from a well, no running water either. We had lights because the RVs have batteries but we could not run the air conditioners in the 5^th wheels without draining their batteries (we would have been OK in our RV).  It wasn’t too bad but we were sure glad that the power line was fixed by the next evening.  We spent the day sight-seeing in nearby Rock Island.  Lonnie had worked for the Armory for around 30 years before he retired, so we went to see that. It was really interesting – it looked like they had every type of gun or rifle ever made on display.  There was also a small, restored house where one of the first settlers’s lived, and a replica of a trading post.  

This past weekend Lonnie and Chris drove their RV down to see us. They came in on Tuesday and stayed until Monday morning, so it was a nice, long visit.  We took them everywhere – Italian grocery stores and bakeries, Soulard’s market, the indescribable City Museum, and the beautiful St. Louis Basilica. The St. Louis Basilica is a large cathedral with beautiful mosaic tile scenes over the entire ceiling and most of the walls. It is simply breath-taking. And as usual when someone comes to visit, Randy wanted to take them to many of his favorite restaurants, so we were almost always stuffed!  

We have started looking for a place to spend the winter. We want to be somewhere that will stay warm, is in an interesting location, and will not require too many hours of work, so we can get out and see the area. We have found some opportunities that look good, so we’ll start checking them out.

04/27/09 Navoo and a long slow drive

On Thursday 04/16 after I got off work we drove to Lovell’s RV in Columbia, where we bought our RV. The washer-dryer hasn’t worked on the cold-water cycle since we bought it so we finally got the schedules worked out to get it fixed, and we wanted to be there when they opened on Friday morning. On the way there we had a bit of trouble - the “ATC” light in the RV came on a few times. ATC stands for Automatic Traction Control and whenever the light came on, the ATC system slows the engine a bit. So when Lovell’s fixed the washer, we asked them to look at the ATC. But Lovell’s said the ATC is associated with the transmission, so we’d have to take it to a transmission specialist. Since our transmission was made by Roadmaster, that’s where we should take it.  

After we left Lovell’s on Friday around noon we drove to Navoo, Illinois to meet Lonnie and Chris, and Theresa and Tomm. Lonnie and Chris have a big 5^th-wheel camper, and Theresa and Tomm were going to stay with us. On the way to Navoo our RV started giving us some real problems.  The ATC light kept coming on all the time, and the RV would not go over 35 miles per hour; most of the time it was less than that. I called the Holiday Rambler support line and they said it wouldn’t hurt to drive it like that but it should be looked at by Roadmaster.  Any time we went up a hill, the RV slowed down to about 10 mph. Sometimes I felt like we would have to get out an push it!  Eventually we made it to Navoo and camped. When Theresa and Tomm got there (they had left Pekin on Friday afternoon) Tomm looked at the RV a bit, but there was no way to know what was wrong. So we tried to put is out of our minds for awhile so we could enjoy the weekend. We did some sight-seeing around Navoo, and Chris and Randy cooked steaks on Saturday, but it was hard to enjoy anything because we were worried about the RV. Then the RV batteries started to go down, and the inside lights wouldn’t come on all the way.  Then the generator, which can be used to charge the batteries, wouldn’t start.  We were afraid we would not be able to bring in the slides, or drive it at all! Randy and Tomm took one of the RV batteries to O’Reilly’s to get it tested, and we ended up replacing 3 of 4 batteries. We would have replaced all 4 but O’Reilly’s only had 3 of the kind we needed. Randy put a battery charger on and we got enough power to bring in the slides and start the engine on Sunday. Tomm was supposed to go to work on Monday but he decided to take Monday off because he and Theresa did not want to leave us when the RV was behaving so badly. 

So when we left Sunday around 12:30, Tomm rode with Randy in the RV and I followed with Theresa in their car. We stopped a few times to try different things to fix the problem. Tomm took out the ATC fuses, thinking that we might be able to by-pass the sensor, but that didn’t make any difference. We only got as far as Quincy on Sunday. The distance between Navoo and Quincy is less that 50 miles but it took us almost 4 hours! The RV just wouldn’t go over 35, and on any hill it went a lot slower.  And it jerked every single time the ATC came on, which was all the time. We got to Quincy around 4:30 and parked the RV in the Walmart parking lot. We belong to an RV club called Good Sam’s which pays for towing service, so we tried to arrange to get the RV towed.  But because it was late Sunday afternoon, nothing was open. We were so glad that Theresa and Tomm were there with their car – we used it to drive out to get dinner, since we didn’t want to use the RV batteries more than we had to. We ended up spending the night on the Walmart parking lot – one RV with 4 people, 3 dogs, and 2 cats!  Theresa had brought her 4 month old puppy, which fortunately gets along fine with our pets. Tomm replaced the ATC fuses and we called it a night.

Monday morning we drove the RV (very, very slowly) to a transmission center who hooked up the RV to a computer program to check the transmission fault codes.  It didn’t find anything wrong. By that time Randy and Tomm both felt the problem wasn’t in the transmission but every time we called Holiday Rambler, they said we needed to get someone to look at the transmission. Then when we called Good Sam’s to get it towed to Roadmaster, they wanted to take it to another local transmission shop.  We quit arguing with them and said we’d go to the other local transmission shop and the tow company said they’d be there in 90 minutes....but we could almost see the shop from the Walmart lot and there wasn’t much traffic, so we just drove there. And son-of-a-gun, the stupid RV worked fine on the drive over there! The guy at that shop was very reasonable and he agreed the problem had nothing to do with the transmission. Since it wasn’t behaving badly anymore, there wasn’t anything he could even look at. We decided to try to drive home. The RV worked perfectly – it ran at the speed limit all the way back to St. Louis. The only think we can think of is that some combination of everything we tried (fuses, batteries, etc) may have “re-set” the sensors.  

We got to St Louis on Monday evening, but Theresa and Tomm were too tired to drive back to Pekin so Tomm took Tuesday off also and they stayed the night with us. Tuesday we all slept in and Randy fixed us breakfast. Then we went over the events of the weekend, so we would have a clear chain-of-events to tell Roadmaster.  Since we don’t know what caused or what fixed the problem, we are not comfortable taking the RV out until Roadmaster looks at it. They will be able to run tests that the local shops could not.  The closest Roadmaster shop is in Wentzville, about 30 miles from here, and we’ll have to make an appointment.  

This next weekend was much nicer.  I worked Friday to make up for not being in the office on Monday (I used a vacation day for Tuesday). Saturday I cleaned the RV, and Saturday night we went out with some friends from church. Dezina’s son Jacob just got a job as a waiter in a local restaurant, so we all went there to wish him well and leave him big tips.

Sunday after church Randy and I joined some folks from church to go shooting.  Kris’ mom has a nice place out in the country, and Kris and her husband Randy invited several friends to go out there for target practice. They have one of those gadgets that fling a small round disk up in the air, and that’s the moving target we shoot at. That was the first time I shot a rifle, but I hit the target on my second shot!  I probably got about 25% of the ones I shot at, which I thought was pretty good for my first time. It turns out I like shooting, so I may take a few lessons.

03/30/09 Memphis by mistake

I can’t believe it snowed this weekend!! It’s the end of March and I am set for spring, not winter!

A couple of Sundays ago we had a chicken and dumpling dinner at church. Randy suggested it as a way to collect some money for the Family Benefit Fund. They got about $800, although the church decided to split it between the Family Benefit Fund and the Marriage Retreat. 

I finally broke down and bought some new clothes – some items for work and a couple of casual clothes. And then new dress shoes and tennis shoes. Then Randy went shopping with me, so I also got a couple of dresses.  

Last weekend Randy and I took a mini-vacation. Tuesday Randy drove to Theresa’s house with all the pets because she agreed to baby-sit them while we were gone. That’s a lot of driving to get there and back in one day, but he couldn’t space it out more because of his commitments to the RV Park and Aaron. Wednesday night after I got off work we drove out of St. Louis and headed for Hot Springs, Arkansas. We didn’t go too far that night so we got a hotel, and Thursday morning drove on. Around mid-morning while Randy was driving, I started making calls to find a hotel and Hot Springs bath/massage. There are several natural hot mineral springs in that area and hotels have been built up around them, so you have to make a reservation at most of them. When I looked up from my phone and hotel books, we were at an exit I didn’t recognize. Thanks to a wrong turn, we were on our way to Memphis! Since I had learned that most of the hotels were already full, we just went on to Memphis. Got a hotel there in downtown and walked to Neeley’s for BBQ. It was pretty good, but not nearly as good as Corky’s, which is where we usually go for BBQ in Memphis. We caught the trolley back to the hotel afterwards because it was a bit too dark to be walking around. The next day we just walked around Memphis to see the sights. We went to Beale Street, which is very famous. In the day it was pretty quiet – not much going on. We went to Corky’s for a late lunch, and I am telling you that Corky’s is the best dry-rub BBQ in the world! (The best wet BBQ is Oklahoma Joe’s in Kansas City.) When it got dark we went back to Beale Street – what a difference! The street was crowded and there were blues bands playing everywhere. We enjoyed the whole scene for awhile.

In the morning we thought we would go to Graceland, since we were in Memphis and we’ve never been to Graceland. It was around 9 am and it had been raining all morning so I thought there might not be much of a line. But there was a real crowd lined up, and neither Randy or I wanted to see it enough to wait in a line like that, so we skipped it. We thought about going to Nashville, but decided to come home. I’m really glad we did because it while we were picking up the pets, Sharon called to tell us about the ATV accident, and we were close enough to go to the hospital. Sharon’s daughter Vicki has a 31-year old daughter named Kama. Kama and her 9-year old daughter Paige were on an ATV (without helmets) and it crashed. Kama got a lot of broken bones – she broke her collarbone, pelvic bones and several ribs, which also got her a punctured lung. But all that will heal normally.  Paige, unfortunately, was thrown head-first into a tree. She had severe internal bleeding in her brain and was so bad that after a couple of days there was talk of “pulling the plug”. However, by the grace of God she is actually getting better. She is still in a coma but she is breathing 50% on her own now, and the bleeding at her brain stem has stopped. 

03/30/09

I can’t believe it snowed this weekend!!!!  It’s the end of March and I am set for spring, not winter! Last Sunday we had Sunday lunch at Aaron and Dezina.  Randy made Bella Napoli, which is sort of an Italian version of nachos. It’s really wonderful!  Along with that he made the “Mushroom Mayhem” sandwiches he used to sell in the restaurant. Dezina made a huge salad, and bought most of the ingredients for Randy. We sat around and played “Scene It” with them and their son Jordon and his girlfriend Metcha.  

03/09/09

One nice thing about living at the St. Louis RV Park is that we are close to so many things.  Friday we went to the Home and Garden show at the America’s Center.  A couple who sell a product at shows like that is staying at the RV Park while the show is going on, and they gave us free tickets.  The show was huge – about twice the size of the RV show!  They had everything there.  One section was for landscaping, and all of the presenters had created an example of their work.  Most of them were about 15 feet across; some were larger.  They created small backyard settings, included fencing, mulching, flowers, waterfalls – everything!

For Randy’s birthday, he took the day off.  We had breakfast at the Black Bear Café.  They are well-known for their bakery goods and they have a weekend buffet so we thought we would try it.  They had pancakes (small and thin, almost like crepes), eggs, fried potatoes, red pepper gravy, fresh fruit, and a few other things.  It was OK, but we probably won’t go back.  

As Randy’s birthday present I got him some attachments for the Wii.  The Wii is pretty cool, because we can use it inside the RV.

We also put in a new faucet in the bathroom sink on Saturday.  The old one was short, ugly, and it leaked.  The new one is taller, very pretty…and it leaks.  Just a bit.  The RV is different from a home, so the things that Lowe’s has don’t always work exactly right.  Randy’s going to work with it and I’ll bet he can fix it.

For dinner we went out with friends.  Aaron and Dezina came over with their son Jordon and his girlfriend. A young man how works with Aaron and Randy, named Jarod, also came. We went to Shaffley’s because they had an Oyster festival that weekend. They brought in something like 25,000 fresh oysters, still in the shell. The waiting time for a seat in the regular restaurant was about an hour, but during that time we went upstairs for oysters. It was pretty casual – we stood in line for about 10-15 minutes, paid cash at the door for what we wanted, then helped ourselves at a long table. On one side of the table were several guys wearing heavy gloves, shucking oysters out of the shell as fast as they could and putting them on trays of crushed ice. On the other side of the table were folks like us, loading our plates with the fresh oysters. There was another table with condiments. The common way to eat raw oysters around here is on a cracker, with a spoonful of cocktail sauce, half a spoonful of horseradish sauce and a few drops of Tabasco sauce. Our group of 7 ordered a few dozen raw oysters and a dozen cooked oysters. The cooked ones are breaded and deep-fried. Then we had to find a place to eat. It was so packed there was no chance of finding chairs, but we did find a long window seat, so we put the food out on it and stood around, scarfing oysters. 

I have eaten raw oysters before and they are OK, but I ate the cooked oysters and left the raw ones to the guys who really love them.  Randy said they were really, really good oysters – must have been because they were so fresh. Just as we were finishing the oysters, our table was ready. We were pretty full by then, so Randy and I just split a burger. But Shaffley’s has some good food – Jordon had a lamb sandwich that was good, and Aaron had a beef pie that was great. Dezina had a huge salad and had to take most of it home. Also, Shaffley’s is a local brewer that is quite famous for their beers, so everyone sampled different beers. I still don’t care for beer so I stuck to Diet Coke. The irony is that I was the only person who spilled her drink – I dropped the whole glass!  Randy joked that I just can’t hold my Diet Coke and he was going to have to cut me off! Randy usually likes the Oatmeal Stout, but he tried a coffee beer – I had a sip, and it was pretty good. After dinner we all went back to the RV and had ice cream cake. Oberwise is a local company with really great ice cream, so I went there and got a German Chocolate ice cream cake. We sat around talking until after 10. 

Unfortunately, thanks to Daylight savings, it was really midnight when we got to bed, instead of 11. And the next morning Randy had to get up early. Once a month he and Judy Glass fix breakfast at the church, with the contributions going towards the church’s Family Benefit Fund.  The breakfast starts at 8:30 and he has to fix everything before then, so I really don’t know how early he got up that day.   The breakfast this month was French toast, banana-nut oatmeal and apple-cinnamon oatmeal. Seriously, Randy makes the best oatmeal.

Sunday was very windy here. When I got home from church, I found that the wind had torn off one of our awnings. When the living room section of the RV slides out to make more room, there is an awing that automatically slides out over it. The purpose is to keep leaves and stuff from falling onto the top of the slide so when it pulls back in, there isn’t anything on top that can hang-up and cause damage. But the awning is totally ruined so we’ll have to see about getting that fixed.

And today I’m back at work. I really, really like working 4 10-hour days and having 3 days off every weekend.