Christmas Eve

I haven't posted anything for awhile, not too much excitement here in Georgia right now.  We have been spending most of our time at Mom's house during the day.  Mostly just quiet days there.  The campground is still quiet.  There was a new campground host couple here when we got here this time.  The old hosts stopped by on Sunday afternoon and we had a nice visit.  Janice has been working on crafts for Christmas presents.  We are enjoying the extra space in the new motorhome very much.  We went to Christmas eve Mass tonight at 6, it was a packed church.  We had the Flanigan traditional Subway sandwich for supper. We plan to leave here around the 16th of January and head toward Texas.  I will try to post some more pictures soon.  Merry Christmas to everyone!

Back in Carrollton

We are back in Little Talapoosa Park in Carrollton.  We arrived late yesterday and parked in the same site that we had last winter.  Mom, Phil, Vic, and Taylor came out for a visit this morning.

Thursday Night in Gadsden

We enjoyed our trip to the Unclaimed Baggage Center today.  We stayed so long there that we decided to stop and spend the night at Gadsden in the Noccalula Falls campground.  Vic and Phil stopped by and brought supper with them so we had a good visit with them.  They are headed to Atlanta tomorrow, so we hope to see more of them this weekend.  Tomorrow we hope to make it to Carrollton.

Wednesday Night in Athens, AL

We left Cape Girardeau this morning without any motorhome trouble.  We crossed the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers on the way to Paducah, KY.  Tonight we are staying at a nice rv park at Athens, AL.  It's a really nice little park with a very friendly owner.  Temps will still be below freezing tonight so the hose will be unhooked before bedtime.  Tomorrow we are planning to go over to the big unclaimed baggage store at Scottsboro.  http://unclaimedbaggage.com  Who knows where we will wonder from there.

Tuesday Night in Cape Girardeau, MO

We had a little delay this morning.  We started out with a jacks down alarm beeping which was odd because we had not used the jacks last night.  We headed out of town hoping that it would clear itself since the jacks were up.  As we drove along listening to the constant beeping, I read in the manual that it was probably caused by low hydraulic oil level.   So we pulled into another Walmart in the next town to get some oil for it.  Of course, the tank on the motorhome was not the one in the picture in the manual so there was no indication of how full it should be.  After waiting a long time on hold with the factory, the answer was pour some in and see if it quits beeping.  If not, pour some more in.  So we did.  On our way again with no beeping.  We stopped for the night at a campground about 5:00 in Cape Girardeau, MO.  Low of 18 degrees expected tonight here.  Water hose unhooked for the night and the engine heater is plugged in.

Monday Night in Pella

OK, we didn't get quite as far as we expected today.  After telling Sarah's family goodbye, we went to the Cummins service center and got the check engine light codes checked out.  We left the motorhome there and drove to Andrea's family goodbye.  We had gotten up to an empty propane tank this morning, so we drove the motorhome to a propane company and filled up and then to a truck stop to fill up the fuel tank and grab a bite to eat.  By then it was snowing.  After we hooked up the jeep and headed out of town we were having electrical problems.  With no tail lights or clearance lights, and the snow starting to get worse, we decided to pull off the road in Pella and try to fix it.  We found a blown fuse but had to go the Walmart to get a replacement.  Of course the replacement blew right away too.  If we unhooked the light cord to the jeep, it would work ok.  After disassembling the lights and socket on the jeep, the short finally went away.  By this time it was snowing harder and it was 4:30.   Not wanting it to happen again in the dark, we opted to spend tonight in the Walmart parking lot.  The snow has stopped, but they are expecting a low of 13 degrees tonight.  We really need to leave earlier in the year next year.

Sunday in DesMoines

We arrived in DesMoines Thursday night and are parked in Sarah's driveway.  Scott came over yesterday and helped me change out the fuel filters on the motorhome.  We have been enjoying our visit here with both of the families.  After Mass today we all went out for the traditional Sunday Chinese buffet.

Later this evening, Garrett was enjoying his chocolate cupcake.

Ashlynn made a delicious batch of red velvet cupcakes with buttercream frosting.

 Zaccary put out his Thanksgiving decoration in the front yard for us to enjoy.

Tomorrow, we are planning to take the motorhome to the Cummins service center to get a check engine light checked out that showed up a couple of times on the way down here and then head south.  Cold and snow are coming.

Getting Ready to Go

We have been planning to leave tomorrow and head south.  So far the weather has not been bad here, but look what we woke up to this morning.  Time to go!

 We had some visitors on Halloween.  Does anyone recognize this bunch?

We managed to get the slide that we brought home from Desmoines attached to the tree fort in time for some fall sliding.

 We stopped over at Rebecca's house tonight for some last minute visiting.  We sure are going to miss this bunch.

Most of the last minute loading is done and we are planning to leave tomorrow and stay in Desmoines for a few days before heading to warmer weather.

Weekend in Little Sioux Park

We had been promising Rebecca's family a weekend camping trip since we had gotten home from North Dakota, so this weekend looked like our last chance for good weather.  We went to our favorite local county park near Correctionville on Friday.  They were having a special Halloween weekend and all of the campsites with electric and water service were taken already (several had been there a week in advance).  So we filled our tank with water and parked in the tent camping area.  It worked out very well, as we had our own almost private area.

On Saturday, they had a scavenger hunt, pumpkin carving contest, hayrides, a creepy crawly exhibit and a campsite decorating contest.  They finished the day with trick or treating at all of the campsites.

We all slept in the motorhome and had a great time.

Late Sunday afternoon we headed home again.  Looks like cooler weather and rain ahead for this week.

Fall is Here

The leaves are turning and falling here, and a low of 28 degrees is predicted for tonight.  We have been busy this week getting some projects done on the house and motorhome.  Janice has been doing a great job of getting everything stowed away so we can hit the road before snow flies.  Hopefully it will all fit.  We are very comfortable in the new motorhome and it's starting to feel like home.  Since I have received a complaint about one of my daughter's family's pictures not being included in the blog (I will not mention her name). Here is a picture of them waiting to pet a frog (or maybe it was a turtle) last summer at the Loess Hills Prairie Seminar.

 

Now she can feel like they are part of the family again.

Back in Sioux City

It's been really busy here since we got back, but I will try to catch up on what we've been doing.  We took a few days to get back to Sioux City after we left Texas.  We stopped overnight in Wellington, KS the first night.  It was a quiet campground and we walked down the street a few blocks and had supper at an A&W.  The next morning we talked for quite a while with a couple from Hollywood, CA.  The next night we stayed in Nebraska City, NE just south of Omaha.  Thursday morning we drove into Omaha and took a tour of the Accuquilt headquarters.  That was very interesting.  Then we headed back to Sioux City.  Rebecca and her kids were here to welcome us home.  Friday night, Sarah and her family came to Sioux City so Darwin could do some work on his brother's truck.  We had a very nice visit.

 

They left Sunday night to go back home.  Monday we had to go transfer the motor home title and do some other errands.  Since then we have been busy visiting with Rebecca's family and some other friends and moving everything from the old motor home to the new one.  It's kind of like moving only without the furniture.  Friday afternoon I drove to Sioux Falls, SD and picked up Angela who had ridden down to there with a friend.  Her family is buying the old motor home and she came to pick it up.  We enjoyed visiting with her on Saturday, and she left today to head home.  It has been a little hard to leave our faithful motor home, but it is going to a good home.  I hope they enjoy it as much as we have.  We realized this week just how efficient the storage space was in it as we are having a hard time fitting it all into a bigger one!

Ready to hit the road in her new motor home.

So after a week with three homes, we are back to two now.  We have much to do to get ready to get out of here again before cold weather hits again.

One More Day in Texas

OK, we shouldn't have eaten at that Chinese restaurant yesterday.  Apparently Mom ate something bad and was up all night throwing up.  Sorry, no pictures.  We will be staying another day.

Sunday in Sanger

We went to Mass this morning, had lunch at a Chinese buffet and did a little sightseeing around Denton which is the next town south of Sanger.  Now we are having a quiet afternoon at the campground.  It is a very nice campground, the new owners have only had it a couple of years but I guess they have really worked on it and fixed it up.   Here are a few pictures from the campground.

They raise some Alpacas here, but I haven't gotten any close up shot of them yet.

It has an old west theme of course, this is the laundry building.

This used to be an old barn, now it is the office and the owners' home.

Local legend has it that this well was originally used by travelers on the Chisholm Trail.

Another view of the office.

The drive down to here from Oklohoma city had some very senic spots to stop and look, here are a few pictures.

After publishing this blog, google added this panarama made from the previous photos, so I thought I would add it.

Janice enjoying her new home.

 

We plan on starting back to Sioux City in the morning and we will probably take a few days to get home again.

We Did It

Tuesday we stayed overnight in Oklahoma City, OK.  Wednesday morning we drove on to Sanger, TX just north of Dallas.  We met the couple selling the motorhome and went over everything in it.  We decided to go ahead with the deal, and we all went to lunch while the banks transferred the money.  Then we got brave and drove it to a local campground.  We had a few problems setting up, but they were going to pick us up for supper anyway, so they came over early and we found a tripped breaker that was causing the problem.  We all went to an interesting restaurant called Babes for supper.  Our RV driving school instructor is coming over after lunch today to start our lessons.  Here are a few pictures:

 

 

The living room and dining area.

Kitchen

Mom's office/craft room in the back.

The bedroom

Bathroom sink and shower

Bedroom cabinets

 And part of the kitchen.