Still at Saylorville Lake

After a week or so, we were allowed to move into Volunteer Village, our normal campground here. Work here has been mostly mowing, since there has been a delay in hiring the normal mowing contractors. Every week has brought rainy days to slow us down on the mowing. A couple of rainy days were spent assembling new picnic tables. Janice has had a bad cough for a few weeks that has prevented us from spending as much time with the kids and their families as we would like to. One family here had a graduation party and the other had a tumbling class recital and a First Communion celebration.
Rice family ready for Easter Mass.

The Miller girls ready for tumbling recital.

Another First Communion for the Miller family.

Leah made cupcakes for her graduation party.

S'mores cupcakes!

Graduation Mass.

We seem to have a lot of orioles at our feeders this year.

This past Friday, we drove from here to Strausburg, ND ( a little over 600 miles) for a Saturday wedding. A friend of Brendan's from a young age has ended up in Bismarck, ND and Brendan was the best man in his wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and we are glad that the newly married couple found each other and will continue their lives together.
Janice and Brendan before the wedding.

We made the long drive home on Sunday, returned the rental car and got back to the motorhome at about 11:00 at night. A nice weekend away from home, a good visit with a few of our kids that are not in DesMoines, and a beautiful wedding, but we slept late on Monday.

Saylorville Lake

We had planned to stay in Bowling Green Saturday and Sunday nights and leave Monday morning, but we stayed one more night and drive to Saylorville Lake today. A snowstorm passed through Bowling Green Sunday morning but it melted later in the day.

The view from our window when we woke up Sunday morning. 

We are currently staying in the Acorn Valley campground here while we wait for the lake to go down enough to open the Volunteer Village campground. Nice quiet campground that isn’t open to the public yet, but no water or sewer connection at the campsites. 

Memphis and Cape Girardeau

We spent Wednesday night and Thursday night at the Tom Sawyer RV Park on the bank of the Mississippi River in West Memphis. We went into Memphis Thursday and enjoyed some time on Beale Street. We started with supper at BB King's Blues club.

Janice had gumbo and I had some really good ribs while we listened to this band.

Then we wandered up and down the street enjoying the sights and sounds.

We stopped for awhile to listen to this band playing in an outdoor area.

Before we went home we went back to BB King's and listened to another band. There was a talented high school musician group there and the band had them join them on stage for a couple of songs (the drummer and the ones with horns on the far end)

The rest of the time we just relaxed at the motor home on the river bank watching the barges go by.

Tonight we are staying at the Cape Camping RV park in Cape Girardeau, MO and tomorrow we head north again.

Still in Athens

Looking at the weather ahead of us as we travel north, we decided to stay here 2 extra nights. We will be leaving tomorrow to travel to Memphis, TN. Planning to be there for 2 nights and then head up to Cape Girardeau, MO. We have just been relaxing, enjoying each other and fixing a few minor things on the Jeep and motor home while we are here. Saturday we had a delicious lunch at Ro's Grille here in Athens and then drove over to Huntsville to a flea market and stopped at a motor home dealer and looked at some van based campers and a few larger motor homes. Monday I made a Walmart run and this afternoon we drove over to Huntsville to enjoy some Baskin-Robbins ice cream. The RV park here is mostly just overnighters pulling in off of the interstate. Almost all of the units leave in the morning and then the place fills up again by night time. I put in a bunch of applications for volunteer jobs for the coming winter yesterday and have already heard back from two of them.

Athens, AL

We have begun our migration to the north. We said good-by to our sister and brother-in-law in Gadsden last night and headed out this morning. We enjoyed visiting and working with them on their remodeling project while we were there. This was the most time we have ever spent with them and we would like to do it again. We will certainly miss them. The first phase of their remodeling was to combine a living room and dining room into a large TV room, and to totally remodel the kitchen. It is finished except for a few small things and looks great.

We stopped at the Northgate RV park at Athens, AL and will be here until Monday morning. Just a quiet place to relax for awhile since we really don't like traveling on the weekends.

Extending Our Stay in Gadsden

Since the remodeling project that we have been helping with is close to completion and Saylorville Lake which is our next destination is flooded, we have extended our stay here in Gadsden until next Friday. The weather here has been pleasant and spring is here. The RV park here has been filled with families enjoying spring break. We have been enjoying having Janice’s mom stay with us for the last few days.

Gadsden, AL

We spent one night in Gulf Shores at the RV park where we wintered 2 years ago. We visited with one friend from there from northern Alabama, and went out to supper and visited with another couple of friends who are from Illinois. Always good to see friends again! The next day we moved to Gadsden, AL where we will be for the month of March. Lots of rain here today!