Albany, GA

We had to leave the campground at Carrollton yesterday because of their two week limit. We had planned to overnight at Tifton, GA and the drive to Ordway-Swisher today but since Florida is having high winds and heavy rain from hurricane Nicole, we stopped last night at the Albany RV park in Albany, GA. We will stay here until Saturday. We have overnighted here before. Today is windy and rainy here from the edge of the hurricane. Nice to not be trying to drive in it.

Gadsden and Carrollton

We overnighted at a Walmart in Gadsden Saturday night and then moved to Noccalula Falls on Sunday.

We parked in a parking lot there and then went to Mass before checking in at 1:00. 

The falls were just a trickle compared to other times when we were there.

We enjoyed a few days there with Janice’s sister and her husband and then moved on to Little Tallapoosa park near Carrollton on Wednesday. The weather here has been beautiful and the trees are colorful. 

The Jeep has started to have some problems shifting into the highest gear intermittently but we hope to get by until we get to Florida next week.

My oldest sister, Kathleen passed away on Monday so I am trying to accept the fact that she is gone. She was a great cook and we always looked forward to visiting her when we were in North Dakota.

Corinth, MS

Warmer weather today, stopped for the night at a Walmart in Corinth, MS. Should make it to Gadsden, AL tomorrow but we can’t get into the campground there until Sunday, so we plan to overnight at the Walmart there tomorrow night.

Lambert’s

Wednesday night we parked at the Cozy C Rv park in Bowling Green, MO. We have stopped there several times and enjoy visiting with the owners. It has been for sale for a few years and they expect to close on the sale of it in a couple of weeks. We wish them well on their retirement but we will miss seeing them. Tonight we are stopped at a new Rv park behind Lambert’s Cafe in Sikeston, MO. Temperatures here are much more pleasant with an overnight low of 45 expected. We are looking forward to supper at Lambert’s Cafe, home of the “throwed rolls”. Click here for Lambert’s information.

Time to go South

We left Sioux City Monday morning, heading south.  We stopped at Volunteer Village at Saylorville Lake for a couple of nights to have time to say goodbye to our Des Moines families and now we are in the road again. The last two nights have been in the low 20s or high teens, so we hope to be in a warmer place tonight.

A few fall pictures from Saylorville Lake.

After a couple of months in Sioux City

Time flies by so fast these days, it seems like we just got here. We have had a lot of fixing projects while we were here. I found and repaired the leak in the air bags and put new shocks on the rear of the Jeep and then took it to our mechanic because of a noise that we could hear going faster than 45. He overhauled the front differential and replaced the front u-joints and the front brake pads. Took the van in for some air conditioner repair. 

The new front seats arrived for the motor home and I installed them. Sure feels good to sit in them compared to the old ones! 

Janice tackled a major cleaning out and sorting project in the motor home and garage. That cleared out a lot of space in here and organized the garage! 

The playhouse that I had built years ago and moved out here to the new house has needed new shingles for awhile, so with the help of Rebecca and the grandkids, we managed to reshingle it. 

Our well here that has given us problems from the beginning dried up a few times this summer, so we had a new well drilled. Hopefully that will take care of some of the water problems here. 

One of the motor home couches Wes worn out and we have debated for quite a while about what to replace it with. We finally decided to replace it with a sewing table. I have the table built and we are just waiting for the Formica to cover it with. I think that it will be more useful than the couch.

Well drilling.

Shingling.

New front chairs.

New table under construction.

In between these big projects we were able to also do some small repairs and tree trimming. Of course we also had some time for games and a trip to the renaissance fair with the family and some visits with some old friends.

One of the best things that happened while we were here was finally deciding to try hearing aids. I really did not have high expectations for them but I have been pleasantly surprised by how well they work and how much I like them. They have changed my life for the better.

Leaving Bismarck

Our month in Bismarck passed so quickly that I just realized that I haven’t blogged since arriving. We enjoyed spending time with our families here. I helped with a few work projects, Janice did some crafting, we played some games, went to rummage sales, ate a lot of food, and just enjoyed spending time with them. We did a day trip with Brendan and his family to the north unit of the Teddy Roosevelt National Park and a day trip with Angela to see my sister in Minot. We had to say goodbye and we are overnighting at Walmart in Aberdeen, SD on our way to Sioux City.

Fargo

A little over 300 miles today, and stopped for the night at Walmart in Fargo, ND. Stopped for lunch at Charlie’s Cafe in Freeport, MN. Small town Main Street cafe with good food and homemade pie! Came out of the cafe to find our tail pipe dangling. Will need a little welding when we get to Bismarck.

Cabela’s in Owatonna, MN

Two months flew by at Saylorville Lake with no blog posts. Work there was busy because they were short on volunteers. After a couple of weeks, I was operating a zero turn mower with the mowing crew, instead of my normal tractor operation. We were able to spend some time with family and friends there. We watched some of the grandkids in a tumbling recital, went to two graduation parties, had a meal in the restaurant with our grandson working as the head chef. We helped with some projects for family and helped a recently widowed friend do some remodeling in her motor home. A variety of birds entertained us on our feeders in return for keeping us busy filling them.

We left there late this morning after having a problem raising our front jack. We are spending the night at a Cabela’s in Owatonna, MN.

Pella, IA

Stopped for the night at the Walmart in Pella, IA. We are about 45 miles from DesMoines where we went to get the oil changed in the motor home tomorrow morning before we go to the lake. We unhooked the Jeep when we got here and went to the Jarsma bakery. Then we took the bikes and bike rack off of the motor home and put them on the Jeep so they will be out of the way for the oil change.

Bowling Green, MO

We stopped for the night at the Cozy C RV Park at Bowling Green, MO. We have stayed at this park several times before and enjoy it. The owners are like old friends which makes it very relaxing. We took a different route starting out this morning on some back roads and ran into a with a bridge with a weight limit that was well below the weight of the motor home. This resulted in a long detour on some narrow country roads. Good thing that Mom is a great driver.

Paducah, KY

Stopped for the night at a Walmart In Paducah, KY. Had a 5 mph headwind today, and a lot of rough interstate. Cooler weather today, wearing sweatshirts to go outside.

Carrollton, GA to Cabela’s in Huntsville, AL

We spent Wednesday through Sunday in Carrollton, GA at the Little Tallapoosa Park. Our days were spent at Janice’s moms house visiting her and Janice’s family. We had a good time there and hated to say goodbye again, but we left this morning and stopped for the night at Cabela’s in Huntsville, AL. I spent some time checking out the store here. A little rain passed through this evening.

Janice feeding a duck in our campsite at Little Tallapoosa.

Some of Mom’s flowering trees.

Us with Mom in her kitchen.

Tifton, GA

We are on the road again, we originally planned to leave Ordway at the end of March, but we decided to stay until after Easter. We really enjoyed our winter there and hated to leave the work, the people, and the quiet there.

The volunteer couple next to us there (Bob and Pam) left a month or so ago. Pam is a clown and so she made Janice some balloon flowers! They are good friends and Bob is great to work with. He is also a serious campfire builder and we were always welcome at his fires.

There are many of these beautiful old live oaks growing around the station and this is the one right next to our campsite.

One of the projects there is to restore some wire grass areas. Seed was collected last fall and we planted the seeds into these starter trays last week. They will be watered and cared for until they are planted in July.

Me and my fellow workers there. 


Bob and I spotted this sunrise  one foggy morning on the way to work and he took this picture. 

I had it printed and put it in a frame for our supervisor, Tracey.

We are stopped for the night at a Walmart in Tifton, GA

Snake

Another volunteer, who is also named Bob and I were repairing boundary fence on Wednesday and stopped to fix a section. I got out of the truck and started toward the fence and luckily looked down just before I stepped on this diamond back rattlesnake. He didn't rattle at all. I backed away and took these pictures.

He was about 5 feet long when he stretched out.

Boat Tour on the St. John's River

 

Early in January, one of our grandsons was delivering a car to south Florida and stopped by here for a visit. Always a treat to see our grandkids, especially in the middle of winter.

February was a quiet month, we spent a couple of days visiting some nearby towns for a quilt shop hop.

Janice then took a couple of quilting classes on two Saturdays in Palatka, FL.

Saturday, we and the other volunteer couple here went down to Astor, FL and had lunch at this restaurant on the St. Johns River. After lunch we went across the bridge to take a river boat tour of the St Johns River.

 While waiting for the tour to start, we watched them open the bridge to let a sailboat through.

We went up the river past several river front houses, both small and large.

We also saw a lot of boats, both small and large.

We detoured off the river and up Blue Creek. That was the best part of the tour, with a lot of birds, turtles, alligators and even a couple of manatees.

It was fun seeing a couple of manatees swimming along side of us.

Looks like someone is enjoying a fish meal.

On the way home, Janice and I stopped at the Salt Springs Recreation Area. There are seven springs under the water in front of Janice that produce 59 million gallons a day at 72 degrees. Many of the manatees winter near here in the warm water.

Gas, here, went form $3.59 to $3.99 on Friday. Hope diesel prices go down before we head north.