Friday

Well, it is another beautiful day on the big lake. The big Summer Celebration has begun at the lakefront venues in Muskegon. There are some top acts coming to perform here such as Macy Grey and the Steve Miller Band. Sue tells us that these evening concerts are quite crowded so there isn’t really anyone we need to see that badly over the next week. There is a huge craft fair and a fine arts fair over the weekend. These are two things I’d like to do, however I don’t think the stinky boys will agree. For some reason handmade silver bracelets do anything for them. No class, either of ‘em.

Well, after days of goofing around with the inverter and the converter, Paul finally read the owners manual. Gee, and to think I mentioned that several days ago. The house batteries kept discharging. They were replaced, same thing. Obviously some serious electrical problem was occurring. I couldn’t understand why if we were plugged into shore power, we were using batteries. Hmmm. Doesn’t the shore power override the batteries? Ya think? Well, as I said, the light bulbs went on over the Ziaja men’s heads at long last. The batteries should be switched to the “store” mode. Go figure. Something so easily taken care of by reading and understanding the owner’s manual escaped our two resident geniuses for days. Ok, enough sarcasm but it really does feel good to know that I at least tried to solve the problem in the normal way…READING DIRECTIONS for heaven’s sakes. Why do men stoutly refuse to do the obvious? Is this a genetic flaw or merely missing brain cells?

I heard from the kid in Geneseo, my old laptop has been fixed. $130 bucks instead of $330 from HP. Hmmm can we say rip-off? Slight problem, the dreaded blue screen of death appeared after he booted up for the second checkup. Grrr. Not that there was anything on it that I had to save, most of my files have already been transferred when I bought the new one at Best Buy. The kid assured me the hard drive was fine; there must be a corrupted file in the boot up. OK, I can deal. This will now be the Paulie laptop. I won’t be able to fix it until we get home and I can find the recovery disk.

An update on the pain meds situation. Michigan will not fill “controlled substance” scripts from docs outside MI. OK. Let me suffer. I called our Walgreens and they will fill it in Springfield and I will have Zack pick it up over the weekend. He can send it to me on Monday. I will be ok until then, I think. There’s always a way to dull the pain with liquor right?

Well, I need to shower and I think I am gonna steel the car and go shopping. I suppose the old farts will want to tag along. I now understand Catherine’s complaint. How can you enjoy looking around and window shopping when somebody is waiting for you in the car? It happened yesterday when I was dumping the blog at the café. I couldn’t even double check anything as both old farts were sitting in the car watching me. Argh. Yeah, that’s it, they’re gonna let me take the car. When pigs fly. I did see an ad for a lighted palm tree like ours at a place called Younkers. Like Famous Barr or Macy’s I think. Hmmm. One is a great magnet, two would be dynamite.

I will try to post more later. I am going to find out about air cards so I can access the net anytime, anywhere.

Later

Dee

Muskegon MI

A note about Tuesday…

As I wrote last night, Paulie and grandpa had vanished. I figured VFW or Elks. At almost 1 a.m.(!) they waltz, or should I say stumble in? They went to mail off some bills, hit a few golf balls and saw all the cars at the Elks. So they go in, local Elks buy them drink after drink and then they started playing dice. Yep. Gambling. Grandpa won $25. Paul lost (prolly $25!). Grandpa was so excited he couldn’t contain himself. Finally about 1:20, Paul does his thing and we make up the bed. I tell him that he needs to be careful driving after a drink (or two…right). They were only down the road, but heck, this is Michigan!

Wednesday

This morning, I felt like I’d been beaten and then thrown in front of a truck. I guess I am in the middle of a good old flare with my fibro/chronic fatigue. Then throw in the rain/sun/rain/sun/rain weather for my Meniere’s and I am worthless. Truly worthless. OK, not that kinda worthless people! I just have to sleep. I slept most of the afternoon and evening, then all night. I got up this morning, made a protein and back to bed I went. The dish guy showed up this morning so we now have our satellite set up. Thank God. The only signals we’re getting were from Milwaukee…yep, Milwaukee way across the big lake! It kept cutting out, so I would search all 60 channels and get zip. What a wonderful thing dish TV is!

I did crawl outta bed to take a shower and then have half a sandwich. I am not up to going out, but Paulie and grandpa are off to explore more of the big lake. I told them to scout out fishing spots so I can get rid of them for a couple of hours. Now that I have TV I can watch either east or west coast soaps, OR watch on Soapnet in the evening. Kewl. There’s gotta be something wrong with me that I have to keep up with these stupid things! The only one I care about is General Hospital; I can take or leave the other two.

Just talked to Suzie and she is going to make us fresh salmon on the grill tonight. Should be good although I am overly fond of salmon…but I am always game to try something new.

Well, I am going to take some pain relievers and lay down again. This overwhelming fatigue is a killer. Who can sleep 18 hours a day? Me.

Hugs

Dee

Tuesday continued…

Dinner was fabulous at Suzie and Larry’s. I have tried salmon a gazillion times and this is the first time I actually liked it! It was fresh sockeye salmon filets that had been marinated. Very tasty so I will have to try this myself. We had some delish strawberry cake that had been served at Suzie’s girlfest the night before. It too was wonderful. It was just a bit too cool out on the deck after the sun went down so we went inside. We viewed the DVD of Sue and Lar’s 25th Anniversary and renewal of vows ceremony. It was lovely. Then we watched a DVD of a four part series on RV’ing that appeared on the Today show awhile back. It was about a middle-aged man who with his adult kids, go on a road trip with his elderly parents. Very entertaining and really a great look at a family’s dynamic. Suzie gave me a copy of the book which contains the DVD. I can’t wait to read it.

We left about 10:15. The sprinklers were on in the front yard, but Grandpa and Paulie said oh no, don’t turn them off…its only water, we can handle this, etc, etc. Typical manly talk. I lead the way and as I round the corner of the sidewalk, I notice the sprinkler head is quickly turning towards the sidewalk. I actually sped up (just think a moment on this mental picture). Grandpa was right behind me, talking and laughing. All of a sudden, grandpa lets out a high pitched yell, quickly followed by Paulie bellowing. The sprinkler head, which was really a very forceful jet type of water faucet thingy had hit both of them square in the cahones. Full force. First it got grandpa then immediately got Paulie! They screamed like little school girls. You shoulda heard them! Perhaps the water was cold? I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. I am NOT kidding. Suzie kept saying “I offered to turn them off but nooooo….!” It was really the highlight of my WEEK. I just wish I had a movie camera…I’d be ten thousand dollars richer. Hello AFV?

I laughed all the way back to the rig as they complained how cold they were and how they would never be the same again…can somebody say skrinkage?

We watched a bit of TV and then hit the sack. We are planning a day trip north tomorrow. More later.

Wednesday

I woke up still thinking and laughing about the water jet thing last night. I had actually dreamt that it had snowed overnight! It was a bit cool temperature wise. Paulie the wuss turned on the heat when we got home.

Don’t know what the plan is today. Grandpa is still sawing logs back in the bedroom. Hopefully we will go near the water, someplace north of here.
I will write more later.

Hugs

Dee

Its later, and we are just back from Holland. I bought a baby knitting book for an outrageous 14 dollars at a very nice yarn shoppe. We just walked around a bit. Neither grandpa or I are much into walking these days. We oogled a few shops and then went over to Holland Motorhomes to check something out with their service dept. Our batteries keep discharging and we are on shore power...it must be the converter that is on the fritz. Paulie is gonna call Damon and get some expert help. There is a texas hold'em game tonight at the race track. A $55 buy in that both boys are considering. Hmmm.

well, grandpa is sitting in the car waiting as I write this. We are in a place called Travese Pie company. I ordered a frozen cocachino and got a capachino...hot. Dipshit. Paulie told me to take it back but I hate to make waves. I drink it and fume about it all the way home. Grrr. The pies look amazing but who wants to pay $12 for a pie I shouldn't even be thinking about anyways? But they do have pot pies...get this...,prime rib pot pie.

Well, I gotta go...later dear readers for more adventures of the meandering seniors.

hugs

dee

Here are some pictures....

Go to yahoo photos for more pictures of last night's beautiful sunset and Suzies magic fingers massage.

hugs

dennise

here is the addy...I think!

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rocketmom1985/album?.dir=/c8afre2&.src=ph&.tok=phWiAGFBsEt5_O2m

Muskegon MI

Our second day here was spent doing errands. We did the laundry, did some shopping and other stuff. I was having some Meniere’s issues so I laid down for a couple of hours. Paul had made dinner and Suzie was over. We had a nice dinner, talked about all kinds of stuff and then decided to go to the beach to see the sun set over Lake Michigan. They refer to that here as “the big lake”. Well, I guess! Sue gave grandpa and me a mini-massage. It was wonderful. Lar’s brother is arriving in town from California this weekend for a visit, and he is a professional massage therapist. I can’t wait to meet him and ask him to do a fibromyalgia massage. I’ve wanted one for ages and maybe being a pro, he can give me some hints, or show Paul how to help me when I am really hurting.

We created another list of the things we forgot to get at the store. Geesh, I shoulda made a list yesterday but Paulie said we didn’t need it. Yeah right, senioritis is ever present (he is the worstest!) so I shant listen to him anymore. This way one trip does it!

Tuesday a.m. looks kinda crapy out, but a crapy day retired is better than any beautiful day working! (OK, sorry dear readers who still toil at jobs….).

Once again my hip is being difficult. It just doesn’t ever NOT hurt. Another call to the doctor to beg for pain killers. The darvoset does nothing anymore…even if I take two. Well, I’ll see when I talk to them if I can get something stronger.

I am posting some pictures we took last night. It was a beautifully cool evening but the sun was beautiful as it set.

Hugs

Dee

Finally access...I wrote a note to ya'll at the start of the newest entries...scroll down to begin so you can read in sequence.

hugs

dee

Sunday
Day whatever…

I am going to stop putting down the day number. I know we have been gone a long time so who needs numbers?

We stopped at a Flying J just inside the Indiana border about 11 last night. For all Paulie’s planning to “miss” the traffic jam at the construction on I80/I90 it was for naught. It took us an hour and a half to get through about a 15 minute section of road.
We were awakened about 5 a.m. by the kitty litter pan continuously running. (For the uninformed, we have used the automatic litter disposal pans for about 10 years or so…wouldn’t do without one.) Anyways, Snickers likes to move every speck of litter to the right side of the pan which screws up the sensors and makes the sweeper thingy run and run. Paul decides that he has to use the bathroom and since I have already used it, he has clear access off my side of the bed since I am standing there shivering. Then when he gets back to bed he decides that he should wake up grandpa like he did to us yesterday, ruining our final minutes of available sleep. Foolish man. I tell the goof that his plan has one major flaw. Of course, grandpa will get up, have a cup of coffee and then as we mosey on down the highway, he will promptly fall asleep in his seat. I will have already moved to sleep on the couch and Paulie would be all by his lonesome, just driving. Just who is “getting” who says I? Defeated, he grumbles some unintelligible words and in minutes, he is once again sawing logs. Not me. Oh no. Not nocturnal dysfunctional moi. I finally fall asleep and it seems like five minutes later Paul is giving me a nudge to get up. We dress, walk over to the store at the Flying J and get some coffee and doughnuts. Crispy crèmes. Yuk they are really bad. No wonder they are losing money…they make lousy doughnuts.

We make it into Michigan and before we know it, we are pulling into the campground at the Elks club in Muskegon. After setting up, we have some lunch. Leftover cocktail party appetizers. My ears are making some awfully strange noises (for a brief moment I thought I was intercepting alien telecommunications signals) so after lunch before I fell down, I went and laid down. My brain does its thing and completely shuts down and I am passed out within minutes. I wake up about three thirty and Paulie has the awning out, the palm tree and all our outdoorsy stuff set out. Whata guy. They tell me that Sue had stopped by earlier but I was asleep. I take a shower and get dressed. Soon we are off to Suzie and Larry’s house to have dinner. Amy and Casey are surprised to see grandpa in his beard. We have a drink and some appetizers while catching up on what’s going on in everyone’s life. Lar makes wonderful grilled pork tenderloin, accompanied by grilled potatoes and onions. Wow, everything was great. We sit around and talk, grandpa telling stories of his family and the war. We left about nine and back to the rig. I thought I’d write a bit while things are fresh in my mind. We will find a laundry and wifi hot spot tomorrow and probably do some grocery shopping. We also want to visit the beach here at the campground. I am watching the TV weather guy and tomorrow is going to be like today…overcast and occasional showers are expected. That’s ok…errands need to be run anyways.

Later

Dee

Saturday
Day 26

To finish up last night’s activities…I had two bloody mary’s and was tipsy. Gee, it takes so little these days to make me tipsy.

We were awakened at 6:30 a.m. by grandpa yelling, “It’s time to get up!” Grrrr. I need that extra half hour of sleep to be at the very least, relatively human. Paulie and I got up, I made coffee and the sofa bed, and then made myself a protein. Busy day today. Paul and I load up the car with the stuff for the chapter fair table. I didn’t think we had that much, but it sure filled up the back seat. We all then walked to breakfast. This time grandpa and I brought coffee that I had made. The MAC coffee is um, shall we say in my Daddy’s own words…”bug juice”. Yep, bug juice. Three packets of creamer didn’t change the muddy black stuff, and then when I put in the splenda, the spoon stood up in the center of the cup. No, really. Once again, the Patty Cakes pancake makers were tossing around cakes at everyone. They just insist on giving me three cakes when I ask for two. I can’t EAT three, why waste it? They had eggs leftover from yesterday. I told the ladies spooning them out that I was allergic and couldn’t eat them, all the while making gacking sounds… “Oh my,” they said in unison. Didn’t have the heart to tell them their eggs sucked.

After breakfast, Paul and I went back to the car and headed over to Bldg 9 where we were to set up the Cenois chapter table. By the time we got there, at 8:30, about 6 tables were already up and hogging all the space. I can always count on Paulie to make people move and do what he wants. We set up our table and it looked ok. The tablecloth from the dollar store was a bit short, but we managed. We still had all the Americana stuff in the rig from our May rally. I had purchased a couple of bags of hard candy and also had the Illinois map with pins stuck in it to represent where the membership of Cenois came from. Not my idea, Bev Stear gave this to me when I took over as secretary and I just stuck it in the closet. It was actually a big hit. However, my power point slide show presented with the big band sounds of Rod Stewart singing oldies was the biggie. Everyone was impressed. Even me. Hahaha.

It was a long morning. We started at nine, and were to stay until one. Everyone except me packed up at noon and was gone. I was the only one left. It was good for me as lots of folks came in after the seminars were over at 12 and 12:30 and I was it. Too kewl. I sure hope some of the folks who seemed interested in our chapter some out to see us at a rally in the future.

After we repacked the car, we decided to visit the 4H food booth and we both got a “barbeque” sandwich. I asked what kind of BBQ and the little girl said “Beef”. Ok, that sounds good, so when Paulie picks up the plates, we get sloppy joes. BBQ? Is a loose meat sandwich a.k.a. sloppy joe really considered a barbeque? Hmmm. Semantics. Gotta love small towns. Maybe its just me…I never thought of a sloppy joe as BBQ.
It actually was a pretty good sloppy joe, er, BBQ. We sat with the Stears and I was supposed to go to the Red Hat Tea at 1. I was a bit tired so I decided to skip it. Paulie gave me a ration of crap about that…finally I told him to button it up…the darn ticket only cost me a buck. PIA. We get back to the rig and grandpa is missing, again. I make myself an iced tea and Paulie goes to look for his dad. At 2 I get ready to go to my last monitor duty which is a scrapbooking craft class that is an hour and a half. I have to make appetizers for our Cenois get together at 5:30. This outta be good. I arrive at the seminar location and there is another seminar still going. I check the book and see that this fella doing a battery seminar is scheduled from 1:30 to 2:30. Ooops. My seminar starts at 2:30. We should have at least a half hour between. All the attendees for the 2:30 seminar are standing out in the hot sun while this group finally breaks up. Of course, they all have more questions for the guy and want to buy his product while here we are trying to set up the craft tables. Then the nitwit monitor from this class removes the bucket with the packets. I had first taken my seminar packet out as soon as I got into the room and took all the pens…what this goof was doing is still beyond me. The bucket with all the seminar surveys are to be left in the room for the seminar coordinator to pick up. Well it just gets better. All the attendees came empty handed. The seminar description said to bring three photos and there would be a ten dollar fee for supplies. Geez…RFB. (Read the freakin’ brochure…!) So, here the scrapbooking lady has 10 signed up and thinks she is gonna make about a hundred bucks for her time. Well, needless to say, she was not thrilled with the group. I certainly don’t blame her. It’s hard to prepare a craft class that can be done in a certain amount of time and she hauled all this crap to the room. Then, to top it off, that group of loud mouthed males were still bugging the previous speaker. The scrapbooking lady had had enough and told the men in no uncertain terms that they needed to move their booty and let her do her seminar. I almost applauded her. I was just getting up to ask them to leave when she spoke up. Thankfully she took it all in stride after a moment of frustration and gave a nice talk about the craft. After an hour, she was done so I was free to go. Off I go back to the rig. Paulie and grandpa came within an INCH of buying an Alfa. Good grief. I leave them for an hour or so and this is what they do. Grandpa had a great time talking to sales people and touring all the coaches. Both he and Paul just love this Alfa coach. Well, I guess Paul came back to earth fast when he found out how much the payment would be. Grandpa wanted to buy it and pay the payments. Gotta love him.

We scurried around and got ready for our guests. I had made Bisquik sausage balls, bruchetta and a round loaf of bread hollowed and filled up with dill dip and bread pieces. Paul had made BBQ wings. By the time everyone arrived, we had wonderful deviled eggs, a sausage and cheese plate, a fruit plate, popcorn and a bunch of other goodies. We all had a great time and everyone was tired but happy that the rally had been a success.

After everyone left for the entertainment about seven, I cleaned up the rig, and Paulie and grandpa packed up the outdoor stuff. We were on I80 by 8:35. We are rolling on 80 as I type this. Well, its pretty dark and I can’t see the keys too well. I’ll write more tomorrow. Hopefully we can find someplace with wifi so I can post these past days entries.

Later

Dee

Day 25
Friday
Henry, IL

It seems I am waking up at 3 a.m. every single night, and then have a hard time going back to sleep. Seems my hip is just achy enough to keep me uncomfortable and unable to sleep. This morning, same stuff. Geesh. Then I have to get up at 7. My brain is a mess. Well, I have a busy morning, monitoring two seminars and then I can go watch my soaps. Cliffhanger Friday you know. The breakfast this morning was eggs and sausage. Um, thanks but no thanks. I made a hot protein and then my sister Jan called. Great, an excuse NOT to go to breakfast. We talked for awhile. I swear, she gets three steps ahead and then has to take two steps back. This week the shower fixture went belly up and of course, it is so old they don’t stock ‘em any more. She is getting her van ready for resale. Hope she can get what she needs. She wants to do replacement windows, and now may have to put in an all new shower plumbing fixture which means tearing out a wall. Good grief.

I met up with Paulie and grandpa. They were grousing about the eggs. Gee, you think I should have spoken up? Nah, live and learn I always say.

I stopped in the vender’s area a bought a water bottle holder that you stick in your pants waist or belt. Really neat. Now all I have to figure out is how to prevent the sweat from the bottle down my leg.

I arrive at my first seminar location and already the presenter is telling jokes. There are about 10 people already there. I pass out survey sheets to those there and hand one to each new arrival. I am determined NOT to let latecomers ruin MY seminar. Tardies were met at the door, told to sit where I told them to sit and I gave them the seminar info booklets and the survey sheet. I think I did quite well, and my presenter did not have to stop the presentation for these tardies. My presenter was quite the talker and I kept trying to get his attention to tell him time was running out. He ignored me; on purpose I am sure, lol! Finally, he acknowledged me, but he was determined to show all his slides and went over the allotted time. I had another seminar which had originally been scheduled at the same location, but was changed to accommodate a larger crowd. I was supposed to be there 15 minutes before the start time to get my stuff together. Finally he shut up (!) and everyone filed out. They all seemed very, very pleased with this gentleman. Paulie later went to another seminar he taught about RV chemicals and batteries.

We book to the next seminar and do the same drill all over again, however this room was huge and we had over 60 attendees. Unlike the Alaska seminar, the tardy folks didn’t disrupt the entire presentation, and thankfully the older couple who were presenting it, didn’t stop at each interruption of tardies. Again, the MODERTOR WAS TOTALLY IN CONTROL…LOL!

It seems my cap lock key is on the fritz. Crap, just what I needed, a problem with my new computer.

I guess my lock key is stuck. Hmmm, how do you fix that?

I GUESS I WILL CALL MY SON…GRRRR, WHY DOES THIS STUFF HAPPEN TO ME? I pried up the key and it looks like it’s fried. I could just scream. OK, enough complaining. I can’t write in all caps, it gives me a headache. I will try to post more later when I am not so pissed. Hey!!! Well I guess I fixed it…there is a selection on the font box on the tool bar. Whew….

Well, those fuglies at Al’s Motorhomes sold my coach. How dare they? It was mine I tell you. All mine! It was a Travel Supreme, 40 foot quad slide, colors inside and out were a rich caramel and black. King bed, beautiful maple cabinetry with an antique overlay. A wonderfully large desk on the curb side and a comfy Euro recliner. A 42, yes 42 inch flat screen TV over the front of the rig. Awesome. I would have been in heaven. It also had a STACKED washer drier…none of that typical Splendide thing which is a combination washer/dryer that everyone says sucks. *Sigh*. Even grandpa wanted this one. He could have had his own sink and medicine cabinet…there were two, one in the bathroom (toilet and sink) separate from the second sink paired with the shower. Beautiful high quality slate tiles The super-sized sofa was leather and it was like butter…really. I could lay totally stretched out, not like ours. No oven, but a convection microwave combo…no stupid stove. Ah, but where would I store bread and grandpa’s cookies? A ceramic smooth top range. The only thing missing was a dishwasher, but I have Paulie. A huge, deep kitchen with beautiful marble counters. OH, it was my dream coach. Well, next time maybe. Or when we sell the house we can trade up. Grandpa and I are in agreement. Sell that stick house and hit the road for great adventures. Like I said…it was only $314,000.00 and it was a 2006…bet they will be dealing tomorrow. Too bad grandpa didn’t bring his check book, lol! OK, OK, its out of our league. One can dream right? I will start looking for used coaches just like this one. Tomorrow I will get the model number and maybe some specs. Oh darn. I will also take pictures so I can look at my dream coach every day.

Well, the boys are at the entertainment for the evening. A joke telling juggler. Gosh. What a great show, I betcha. Well, not for me. Jugglers, magicians, tumblers and the man on the flying trapeze are just not my idea of entertainment. Clowns freak me out and so do ventriloquists. Too many horror movies in my early years I think. I have chills just thinking about somebody who thinks a hunk of wood TALKS for god’s sake. My hip is really bothering me and I am going to take a nice hot shower and relax in the recliner. As I noted earlier, we have a full day tomorrow.

Later guys…

Dee

Day 25 continued…

Gee, I wrote all the above and forgot to tell you about two exciting parts of my day…one just happened in the shower…! I was showering in the rig, nice hot water, new Mary Kay cleansing gel (great stuff Maureen, if you’re reading this. However…the tube is defective…half the gel gushed out the bottom seam…must not have been connected/glued correctly. Love it though!) Anyways, the glob of gel wound up on the shower floor and immediately foamed up and made the floor of the shower just a tad slippery. Of course, we all know that I am not the best balanced person in the world, and in an instant my every present dizziness ratcheted up a notch and I started to fall…my ass hit the shower door, it popped open, water gushed out onto the bathroom floor. I was quick enough to grab the door jab. Once again, my shoulder jammed up against the door frame (can’t I take just one fall without popping my bad shoulder out? Grrr.). Whew, that was a close one…I can’t imagine what damage I would have done to my old body not to mention the damage to the rig’s bathroom. Then of course, I can just imagine Paulie’s face coming home to that spectacle. Well, so much for taking a shower alone in the rig again!

Earlier today, during the second seminar, about half way thru the presentation, Paulie left to go check on grandpa at the rig. I needed to go to the bathroom in the worst way. I kept jiggling around waiting for Paul to come back and let me get away to the bathroom. He finally got back and I made a beeline to the ladies room. It was like a block away. I don’t walk fast to begin with but I finally made it to the stall, and started to take off my jeans skort (shorts under a mini type skirt is a skort). Well, I couldn’t unbutton and unzip in time. I just wet my pants. How embarrassing!!! And I am actually writing about it and letting you all laugh at me! How stupid is that? I had to take off my icky panties and put them in my fanny pack. Ugh. Thank the good Lord; the skirt part of the skort covered the wet spot. I gotta go and have this checked out when we get home. It’s been almost 10 years since my last bladder surgery so I guess I am due. I cannot even fathom having another one, but I have read that ten years is about all they last. Good grief. It just never ends!

Well, the boys are back from the entertainment and Paulie is fixing us a drink. It was a beautiful day today, sunny yet cool with a nice breeze. It is now past sunset and again, it’s a beautiful night. Hopefully, I will have some time to write tomorrow. After the entertainment tomorrow evening, we will be taking off. Paulie wants to get past the I80/I90/I94 craziness when traffic is light, hopefully by 11 or so when we get there, it will be smooth sailing. We will most likely stay at a rest area, WalMart or truck stop and get an early start Sunday a.m. We alerted the Elk’s campground that our plans have changed and we won’t arrive until Sunday. Can’t wait to see Suzie, Lar and the girls.

Later…

Dee

Thursday
Day 24
Putnam County Fairgrounds, Henry IL

We were up at about 6:45 am. Good Lord, I hope this doesn’t be come a habit! I can’t take it! Pancakes this morning. The last time we had pancakes at a rally the fella they hired had this huge, I mean huge flat griddle. It seemed to be about 30 feet long and attached to the sides, running along a rail type rigging, there was a funnel contraption that had four nozzles. As the guy moved the funnel along the sides of the griddle, he was piping out four pancakes at a time, perfectly round, perfectly spaced. By the time he hit the end of the griddle, it was time to run back to the beginning and start flipping. Out of the blue, he would yell, “Heads up!” and flip a pancake at some unsuspecting soul waiting in line. Amazing. This guy was perfection. What a great idea, and such a clever set up. The couple running the griddles this morning had a similar set up, only the griddles were only about 12 feet each, and there were two, a husband and wife team who were working like crazy. She was a wild gal, and was quite good at flipping a cake at someone standing in line. She had one heck of a flip and usually hit one of the helpers standing behind the folks waiting in line for food. I almost wet my pants when she yelled “Catch!” and the pancake landed on a volunteer worker’s head…who was bald. I wonder if it burnt his head! The pancakes were delicious and I devoured both of mine. I usually can eat only one, but they were very light and smallish so I cleaned my plate.

A word about last night’s entertainment. The Caterpillar Big Band played. They are employees, or relatives of employees of Caterpillar workers. Hmmm. I wonder. They were quite professional. And incredibly good. It was like Glenn Miller had been resurrected and was up there leading these guys. The singer was good also. They played mostly songs from the Big Band Era and I just loved it. So did everyone else!! They were well received and the appreciative audience gave them several standing ovations. I must say (and this is the skeptic in me I guess…) thinks that these guys are professional musicians and they have token jobs at the Cat plant. Any one of these folks could easily quit Cat and become a successful musician in any orchestra or band around. Just me. I am going to have to find out from someone who knows. The guy on alto sax was superb and the trumpet player who was one big fella was like Tommy Dorsey. I am not making this up!


Ok, back to today. As we were dining on Patty Cakes pancakes, a huge storm rolled in. The wind was blowing so hard the metal walls of the building we were in made a really loud rattling sound. Uh oh….I went back to the rig, my umbrella almost turning inside out in the strong winds. I guess that the display coaches will be closed up until the rain stops. I don’t think I’d want muddy shoes walking thru one of my honking new coaches if I was a dealer. I think the inside vender’s area will be jammed. Grandpa is sleeping on the couch as I write this, and Paulie is off to a FMCA Benefits seminar. We need to find out if grandpa has to join FMCA to have the benefits or he is considered part of our family (like a kid would be covered traveling with his parents). He is family, he travels with us in the rig, so I think he should be covered, but you can never be sure.

I wanted to go to a RV chemicals seminar, but think I’ll stay in and do dishes. I hate walking in thunderstorms. I always think I’ll be struck by a bolt of lightening. I haven’t been too nice lately. (Just kidding…I am always nice…!)

Well, there are 5 wifi’s available here, all privately owned by folks with internet satellite dishes and all code encrypted. Rats. If I find someone who owns one of them, I will offer to pay them for a bit of access so I can dump my blog. I would do that if someone asked me and I owned one!

Well, the dishes are calling me…and then I want to go to an Alaska seminar at 11. Maybe the rain will dissipate over the next couple of hours. It doesn’t seem to be letting up however, and the thunder is just booming. Believe it or not, my ears are just aching, but the fatigue hasn’t hit yet. I think the barometer was falling while I was trying to sleep. Had a very rough night, tossing and turning all night. Paul is a saint to put up with me. Ha ha ha, what choice does he have…its me or grandpa! And Pepi sleeps with grandpa. At least I don’t snort like a piggy when I sleep. Like Pepi! Well, not that I am aware of anyways!

Later,

Dee

P.S. I will download some pix later if I can link up. I don’t have too many, but I do have one of grandpa with a fish he caught in Geneseo…

Day 24 continued…

Paulie came back to the rig and by this time it had stopped raining. Amazing. One minute it’s pouring, the next minute the sun starts to peek through.

We looked at a few coaches on the way to the seminar on Alaska. I found a really nice Travel Supreme. Only $314,000. But it was a 2006, so I figure they will let it go at less than MSRP. I think I’ll offer 200 and see if they bite. LOL! Heck I can count all the pennies in my mason jar!

The Alaska seminar at 11 was almost full when we got there at 10:40. At 11:05 the presenters tried to start but people kept coming into the room. Each time, the presenters had to stop the presentation, turn the lights on (it was a slide show) and pass out materials including a raffle sheet. Again and again they were interrupted by latecomers. Grrrr. I hate these inconsiderate goofs. If the seminar starts at 11, they should BE there by 11. I swear…the entire presentation was ruined for me. I was getting madder by the minute. At 11:50 yes, ten minutes before the end, they still came in and interrupted. The gall. I wrote all over the comments sheet that once the seminar starts, especially one with visual stuff that the monitor should not allow any late comers ten minutes after it starts. Yeah, that’ll fly. At the end, they collected the raffle sheets. These damm nervy idiots were all pissy that they didn’t get one to fill out so they had a chance to win. The presenters, very, very nice folks, passed around some additional sheets and the entire room had to wait until they filled out their raffle sheets. Well, as fate would have it, one of the late ignoramus’ won. By now I am livid and had to actually bite my tongue so I wouldn’t say something evil and nasty. I am still pissed.

We went back to the rig and had some lunch. After lunch, grandpa went with us to look at coaches. We saw some nice ones…all way overpriced for our meager budget. Afterwards, we went to another seminar and grandpa went back to the rig. This seminar was about how to use simple things like Velcro and cord winders to make your rig more organized and to be less stressed. Stress and frustration go hand and hand with rv’ing. Maybe some of these ideas will help. I tease Paulie all the time that perhaps full-time on the road would be too stressful for him. Every time there is a little problem, he goes off. He used to be so laid back and calm. What ever happened to that Paulie? Well, Zack I guess, lol!

After the seminar we went back to the motorhome and picked up grandpa. We went into Henry to look for a place to eat. Paul and I had eaten four years ago at the bar and grill on the square, but we thought we’d try somewhere else. We wound up at Mother’s. Well, if ever there was a place that was small town, old and hokey, it was this place. We were the only customers for dinner and it was almost 5:30 p.m. I had the special…meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy and fugly green beans. The salad was served in a dessert bowl and grandpa ordered blue cheese dressing and the waitress arrived carrying a bottle of Kraft Blue Cheese. Honest. The meatloaf was tasty and the potatoes were really smashed taters…a nice surprise. Grandpa had a steak which he said was very good. Just as we were finishing up, a group of 8 came in, also from the FMCA rally. This poor waitress was just overwhelmed. Poor girl. We left her a nice tip, probably more than she had made all day. On the way home, we stopped at the dollar store for some dish soap and some other paper goods. Paulie walked next door and bought some more beer…my fav Killian’s Red. Such a nice guy, eh?

Well, I decided not to go see Dave and Daphne, the entertainment duo for the evening. We saw them in Albert Lea, and although Dave is a really great guitar picker, Daphne’s voice just grates on me. She sang Cabaret and it was like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. Icky. Paul and grandpa went and of course, grandpa was all ga ga over this Daphne chick, I know he does this stuff just to irritate me. It works.

While they gone, I finished up my printing for the chapter fair on Saturday. I am gonna be a dead woman walking by Saturday evening. Paulie and I man the chapter fair table
from 9 to one. Then at one, our Red Hatter’s tea goes until two. At 2:30 to four, I am monitoring my last seminar, a scrapbooking thing. Then at 5:30 we will have a get together here at our rig for the Cenois members here at the MAC rally. Horseydovers are on the menu. Everyone will bring something, and a chair and we can discuss the events over the week. We plan on leaving right after the entertainment. Some middle-aged babe and her four aces or some such act. Gosh, it must be hard to find good entertainment that is affordable for these rallies.

Well, it’s almost bedtime. Yanno, 7 a.m. is just to darn early for my psyche to deal with.

Later…

Dee

Wednesday,
Day four thousand six hundred and eleven…

OK, so I can’t remember…one of those senior moments I reckon….

We finally arrived at the Henry Putnam County fairgrounds. Wow. Motorhomes as far as the eye can see. Ok. Well, maybe they just fill the fairgrounds. Looks to be about 375 rigs here. I did see one 5th wheel. Must be a vendor…nothing but motorhomes allowed here for goodness sakes. With all these big dollar coaches, I bet the guy in the 5th wheel feels like a poor ol’ piker. I never cease to be amazed at the number of coaches that retail over $500,000.00 at these things. If I could afford a half a mil for a home, I sure as hell wouldn’t spend it on a tin can on wheels for goodness sakes. I’d buy a lakefront or ocean front villa on either Lake Como or near Sanibel Island. Well, maybe not Sanibel…they are more like 4 or 6 million…can’t afford the taxes on those puppies.

We had to wait almost two hours to get parked. One of the parking volunteers said that two out of three coaches were handicapped. They ran out of spots for us handicappers…we lucked out since we were placed in a plumb spot. We are in with the Midwest Frustrated Maestros, the group of folks that entertain us at breakfast each day. We are 200 feet from the display coaches and just about 600 feet from the arena where the entertainment will be each night. Paulie took our lawn chairs over all ready so we can get a good seat in the handicapped section. So many of our friends from Cenois are here, and have really important jobs to boot. Good to have friends in high places as they say lol!

We are planning on steak for dinner. I was starving so I made two brushettas for myself. Crisp bread topped with tomato and onion in spiced olive oil and then topped with mozzarella cheese. Oh they are soooooo good. I planned on bringing them to our Cenois club get together but now, I just might do something else. I hate to part with something so good. Selfish girl…yep that’s me!

Well, I am so hungry I could eat the proverbial horse. Where is Paulie for heaven’s sake? I’ve got to eat or have another low blood sugar problem. Last time it was 46. NOT good.

Later

Dee

Dear Readers...START HERE FOR UPDATES!!


Ok my friends...I am sitting in a comfortably overstuffed arm chair in the new Barnes and Nobels in Muskegon. I have popped two (yes, two) vicodin from Paulies old stash from his shoulder surgery, so I am not only PAIN free for a couple of hours, I am also in a pretty good mood, LOL!

I am going to post the last week's blog entries as this is the first opportunity to get wifi. I apologize but the folks in Henry IL didn't have a clue what wifi was so you can imagine my frustration. Sorry that you will have to go backwards, but actually there's not alot I can do. However I will post them individually with the day on them so it may make it easier. I sure hope everyone is enjoying this as much as I am enjoying practicing my writing skills. It has been suggested to me that I use this as a basis for a book on fulltiming in our RV...hmmm, such as what not to do? Or don't do this because...just ask me how I know....

well, off to cut and paste. Miss you all, but we are having a ball. Grandpa still wants that Alfa he fell in love with...I think he and Paulie are gonna call Pontiac RV and see if the deal they worked out is still good. Hey, whatever grandpa wants...he is having a great time and I am so very happy about that. Not to mention that he and I are tossing back a few cocktails and have never had more fun talking and listening to his stories. He is a real card. I think I am going to get out the video camera and start recording these sessions. I love looking at Daddy's videos. Makes me realize how truly wonderful his stories were and makes me miss him, but in a good way. I still see his twinkling blue eyes and that goofy grin he made when he knew he was joshing ya.
I will regret not getting grandpa Gene on tape.

hugs

dee

Henry Bound...

I forget what day it is. Paul pretty much got us ready to roll last night. The dishes this morning completely filled up the grey water tank. Wow, we were here a week and we didn't have to move the rig to dump. Kewl. Now I know we can dry camp, even with grandpa along!
I will be losing the wifi connection I paid dearly for this morning, so I am not sure when I am gonna be able to post on the blog again. They may have some freebie computers at the rally, but I am not counting on it. I will write off line and then post a couple of days at once. I know its a pia to read that way but it's the only way I will be able to keep ya'll entertained...hahahaha!

I am off to take a shower while Paulie does the ever so exciting job of dumping the tanks.

later,

dee

Day 22

Geneseo Campground

I skipped yesterday. Sorry. We really didn't do too much. Paulie and I crawled all over town to find two new house batteries for the coach. We have been told they have a three year lifespan, and ours are now four years old. Ooops. We couldn't find the kind we needed anywhere but the local automotive repair shop ordered two for us, they will be here this morning. I guess I just haven't got a clue why when we are plugged in to electric, the house batteries are also needed. Maybe 'cause it's a 30 amp connection and we need 50 amp? Hell if I know. Now ask me if I care?! We sat outside alot yesterday as the weather was just perfect. For dinner, Paulie made god-awful spaghetti. Normally he makes a great sauce with ground beef, jazzed up jar sauce with chunky tomatoes. I like to eat just the sauce, forget the stupid noodles.

We were up about normal, ninish. Paul and Grandpa went off to town to get the batteries. I decided to do some net surfing. I like to look at the rv for sale sites and see what great buys there are. No reason, just to see what's out there. I would like to get a three slide unit if we decide to do more traveling. But I am certainly happy with our current coach. The only problem we have traveling with grandpa is that the sofa bed is so long that the person sleeping on the front side of the coach can't use the bathroom...no room to walk around the bed. That would be the only change I would make.

Well, we will be packing up later today for our trip to Henry IL tomorrow. I need to attend a volunteer's meeting at 3:30. I have volunteered to help moderate seminars. I got lucky, I drew two Mexico seminars and the other one I can't remember what it is.

This has been a nice quiet week. The campground was full over the weekend, but our area which is only water and electric hookups is deserted. There are more in the w/e/sewer area. There are three or four motorhomes that came in together. They are a biking group and are taking advantage of the bike trail along the Hennipen canal which is about 500 yards away from the campground. Paul spoke to one of them yesterday and apparently they biked 50 miles east. Gee, 50 miles. Not in my lifetime!

I will try to post more later.

hugs

dee

Day 20

Geneseo Campground

Sunday morning...threatening skies. Again. Grrrr. We get up and out to the meeting room. Oh my. Wonderful fresh fruit salad, four kinds of coffee cake, biscuits, oj. What more could one ask for? After breakfast we had a nice sermon by our Chaplain, Hank Kerr. After a closing prayer, everyone was off getting their rigs ready to roll. We are staying until Wednesday, so we just sit around and visit. Bev Stear, Paul and I carry out the tubs to Harold's car. Noesy rosey here decides to open up one tub to see what's in it...wham...the lid slips and whacks off my salute finger fingernail...at the quick. Ouch. Crap. My beautiful nails, now ruined. Grrrrrr. I am not a happy camper.

We sit on the porch of the meeting room just visiting with Phyllis and Art Reinholtz, Bev and Harold Stear. Grandpa is in the rig reading the paper. We sit and watch the exodus of all the weekend campers. There seems to be a log jam at the sewer dump. After solving all of the world's problems, the Stears go off to get their rig ready to roll, and I head to our rig to do dishes. I read the paper, have 1/2 a sandwich and then the sleepies hit yet again. This time I only take a 2 hour nap. Must be my vitamins...that I keep forgetting to take. I promise myself, its back to the routine on Monday. I gotta keep up my protein intake and do vitamins...no questions, no excuses. As I sit here typing this, we are watching the end of the US open. I am routing for Mickelson, but he seems determined to blow this tourney. OH well, I am not a golf on TV fan...or a golf fan period. I think we will mosey outside, build a fire and have a nice cocktail. Sounds really good to me. The campground is quite empty now. A few more in the full hookups area, but our area is empty. The wagonmasters left the wood they had brought for the rally for us to use. How nice. I like to sit in front of a campfire. A nice relaxing Sunday. Its nice to visit with friends, especially our good friends from our motorhoming group...the Cenois Prairielanders.

Don't know what our plans are for Monday or Tuesday for that matter. There is a casino near here so perhaps we will visit there.

later,

dee

Day 19
Geneseo Campground, Geneseo IL

The alarm went off very early at 7 a.m. Paulie and I get up, make up the bed and then I am off to take a shower. Amazing. There are people up and about. I can't imagine having to do this everyday. Ugh. I make my way back to the rig and we all head over to the meeting room. The wagon masters have made a wonderful breakfest...three kinds of egg casserole and biscuits. I am not terribly fond of egg casseroles or omelets either so I took just a bitsy piece of casserole and a biscuit. After we finished eating, the campground owner arrived and gave us a nice talk about the history of the Hennepin Canal. It was very intersting and informative. After his talk, we held and "informal" meeting just to discuss a couple of outstanding club issues. After the meeting, I sat and talked with Linda Barcus for awhile. Afterwards, back at the rig, I was so tired I had to sleep. This is two days in a row for heaven's sake. I slept until 4:45 when Paul woke me up and said we were expected at five. Geesh. I took the eclair cake and watergate salad and went over to the meeting room. We had ham, lots of cheesey potatoes, and lots of goodies for dinner. My watergate salad was not set...I didn't add the marshmallows, remember?
After dinner we all gathered around the firepit just outside the meeting room and talked. About 9 the bugs started getting bad so we all said goodnight. Paul and I barely made it thru the 10 pm news and followed grandpa to bed.

What an exciting day. Hmmm...somethings not right here. Rain. Damm Rain.

later,

dee

Day 18...
Geneseo Campground, Geneseo IL

Gee, I lost a day. Literally...I lost a whole day. We got up late this morning...9 am. I made coffee, did up the sofa bed and made myself a protein. After signing on the wifi, I started to read my emails. Whoa. I can't read the screen. My ears are killing me, and I feel some vertigo coming on. My eyes aren't focusing at all. I finish my protein, shut down the laptop and lay down in the bedroom. I am immediately spinning so I get up and take a valium. Then, the next thing I remember is I have to go to the bathroom. I get up and stagger to the bathroom. I am also parched. I go into the living room and Paulie is sitting there working on the FedEx box of bills that Zack has sent. I get a bottle of water and stagger back to bed. At four pm, Paulie wakes me up. Geesh, I have lost all day...Friday went pffft! I get up, get dressed and try to do something with my bed head. Good thing we are amongst friends...I look like something that crawled from underneath a rock. Before we go to dinner with the gang, I make a list of stuff I need from the grocery store so I can bring something to the potluck tomorrow evening. We all meet at The Cellar restaurant. We were in a private room, and for the first time in a very long time, we had a waitress who really knew what the heck she was doing. There was an all you can eat fish fry...Paulie, grandpa, Elizabeth and Hank ordered that, and I ordered chicken. The food was good. Great salad and very tasty cinnamon buns. The food was served hot which is unusual when we are in such a large group.

Paul and I drop off grandpa who's tummy seemed to be acting up and then it's off to Jewel. We get back to the campground and I start to make Watergate salad (this one without mini marshmallows...bought them but forgot to add them to the dish) and eclair cake. I didn't want to buy the stuff to make the icing according to recipe so I just got a can of fudge frosting which I melted in the microwave and just poured on top of the cake, similar to the way I make the HoHo cake. Paul joined some of the folks outside and grandpa and I watched TV after I finished making my potluck stuff. Paul came home about ten, and grandpa went to bed. I thought I'd write a few lines before I hit the sack. It was a beautiful sunny day today, but I, like Rumplestilskin (sorry about the spelling...I can't remember how to spell some fairytale names, lol!) slept the day away. What a waste. I sure hope on judgement day, God doesn't ask me if I was productive all the days of my life...I think I'll be in a bit of trouble. Breakfast is at 8 which is in my not so humble opinion, all together too darn early for anything much less food, but I guess I am in the minority here...(we have some early risers in our group). I need to shower so that means I gotta get up at least by 7:15. Gosh, just the thought makes me tired. Oh well. I'll suffer through this too...hahaha...

hugs

dee

Day 18...
Geneseo Campground, Geneseo IL

Gee, I lost a day. Literally...I lost a whole day. We got up late this morning...9 am. I made coffee, did up the sofa bed and made myself a protein. After signing on the wifi, I started to read my emails. Whoa. I can't read the screen. My ears are killing me, and I feel some vertigo coming on. My eyes aren't focusing at all. I finish my protein, shut down the laptop and lay down in the bedroom. I am immediately spinning so I get up and take a valium. Then, the next thing I remember is I have to go to the bathroom. I get up and stagger to the bathroom. I am also parched. I go into the living room and Paulie is sitting there working on the FedEx box of bills that Zack has sent. I get a bottle of water and stagger back to bed. At four pm, Paulie wakes me up. Geesh, I have lost all day...Friday went pffft! I get up, get dressed and try to do something with my bed head. Good thing we are amongst friends...I look like something that crawled from underneath a rock. Before we go to dinner with the gang, I make a list of stuff I need from the grocery store so I can bring something to the potluck tomorrow night. We all meet at The Cellar restaurant. We were in a private room, and for the first time in a very long time, we had a waitress who really knew what the heck she was doing. There was an all you can eat fish fry...Paulie, grandpa, Elizabeth and Hank ordered that, and I ordered chicken. The food was good. Great salad and very tasty cinnamon buns. The food was served hot which is unusual when we are in such a large group.

Paul and I drop off grandpa who's tummy seemed to be acting up and then it's off to Jewel. We get back to the campground and I start to make Watergate salad (this one without mini marshmallows...bought them but forgot to add them to the dish) and eclair cake. I didn't want to buy the stuff to make the icing according to recipe so I just got a can of fudge frosting which I melted in the microwave and just poured on top of the cake, similar to the way I make the HoHo cake. Paul joined some of the folks outside and grandpa and I watched TV after I finished making my potluck stuff. Paul came home about ten, and grandpa went to bed. I thought I'd write a few lines before I hit the sack. It was a beautiful sunny day today, but I, like Rumplestilskin (sorry about the spelling...I can't remember how to spell some fairytale names, lol!) slept the day away. What a waste. I sure hope on judgement day, God doesn't ask me if I was productive all the days of my life...I think I'll be in a bit of trouble. Breakfast is at 8 which is in my not so humble opinion, all together too darn early for anything much less food, but I guess I am in the minority here...(we have some early risers in our group). I need to shower so that means I gotta get up at least by 7:15. Gosh, just the thought makes me tired. Oh well. I'll suffer through this too...hahaha...

hugs

dee

Day 17 continued...

We decided to go off to explore Geneseo after breakfest. I needed to find an adapter for my printer cable to change from a pin plug to a USB plug. We stop at Radio Shack. Paul had to rush back to the campground as he thinks he threw away the existing printer cable along with the trash. Dufus. I inquire at Radio Shack if there is such an adapter, and yes there is. Unfortunately, there was only one in stock and it was sold. I go down the street to a computer store and check with them. Nope. No dice. Paul comes back and we head to WalMart. I check to see if they have any of these adapters. Nope, no dice again. The price of the Radio Shack adapter is $35. I bought a new printer for $29. Of course, I had to buy a USB cable, which cost about $14. I lose money, but I now have a newer printer. I hate how fast technology changes everything so quickly. By the time you get the item home it's totally obsolete. I will try and return the ink cartridges that were with the printer...hopefully, I can recoup some money on those.

After spending mega bucks at WalMart, we go to a brand new Mexican restaurant that has opened on main street in town. It was quite busy, but we were seated fairly quickly. The food was very good. Very authentic flavor. I hate the over spicy garbage most places serve. As grandpa and I were leaving as Paulie paid the check, I missed the step outside the door and almost fell on my bum. How embarrassing. A young woman walking by the place almost had a stroke she was so freaked. I twisted my right knee (so what else is new!) and also once again threw out my right shoulder. I did manage to hand on to my doggie box. Geesh. Paulie would never have forgiven me if our leftovers had landed on the street.

Back at the campground, Paul goes off to plaly Mexican train with other club members, grandpa goes off fishing and I set up the new printer. Elizabeth Kerr comes over and we visit for awhile. Grandpa rushes into the rig swinging a huge catfish he had just caught in the canal. Elizabeth and I screech at the sight of this fat fugly catfish. He tells us how this fish pulled him into the canal after breaking his line. He is soaking wet so I guess the fish gave him a really good fight. He goes off to show off his prize fish to the group. I am starting to feel the incoming rain and dropping barometer. After Elizabeth leaves, I try to lay down and nap. My knee is hurting, my hip is also hurting and I am miserable. I can't seem to get comfortable so I get up and take a pain med. I plop into the recliner and read the Davenport paper.

Everyone was going into town for dinner, but since we had such a large late lunch we decide to skip dinner. Paul decides to go fishing, grandpa is napping while watching the news and I start nodding off in the recliner. Grandpa wakes up and we both eat the lunch leftovers along with a nice cold beer.

Not much on TV, and I am not going outside to get eaten by misquitoes. Paul goes to visit with the group, and I decide to find recipes for the potluck on the net. A very quiet evening for sure.

Well, its almost time to makeup the sofa bed. Paul is closing the windows as the humidity is getting oppressive. It is supposed to be 95 here tomorrow, and humid. Oh swell, my favorite kinda weather. Rain, humidity and heat.

Not sure what we are doing tomorrow. I need to get to the grocery store and get stuff to make for the potluck. I have decided to do some kind of jello thingy.

Well, off to bed.

hugs

dee

Day 16 continued...
Geneseo, IL

After working on setting up the satelitte dish all afternoon, Paulie finally threw in the towel. I had been able to access the dish network sight and downloaded the instructions on how to wire the thing. I tell Paul I will print them. Aha...I have a printer in the rig, am I prepared or what? I lug it down, plug it in and bring over my laptop. Crap. My new laptop doesn't have the correct printer connection...the new ones are all USB ports. This is grandma's old printer and it has the old pin type connectins. Crap again. I was also hoping to print the letter I had composed to the IRS to get this thing settled. I don't even know if there is a converter from a pin connection to a USB. And, will it be available in Geneseo IL? Maybe I should just bite the bullet and get a cheapy printer to keep here. I really don't want to do that, as I was hoping to get my old laptop fixed and then I can use that one (which will become Paulies laptop) to do any printing as needed.

About 5:15, Paulie who is now NOT in a very nice mood due to his frustrations over the dish satellite thing says he is going into town. OK. I have been waiting all freaking afternoon to go grocery shopping. We go off, grandpa stays behind with the furkids. Paulie is traveling at the speed of light down the highway. He tells me that we need to hurry because it will be late by the time we get dinner on the table. Ok. We ask a local for directions. We find the Jewel. A Jewel right here in Geneseo. And its a nicer one that what we have in Springpatch. Can you believe this? We rush thru the store, and cripes $66 dollars later we are off back to the campground. Paul and I put away the stuff and he starts to get dinner ready. He has cooked steamed shrimp (courtesey of the deep freeze back home), coleslaw and hawiian salad from the deli. I can tell he is pissy 'cause he put some of each on our plates and even put cocktail sauce on the plates. He is in full control/prickly mode when he does this. Dinner was ok...shrimp were a bit salty to me, but then since I limit my salt, everything tastes salty to me.

After dinner, Paulie decides to go take a shower. Gee, its been so long I don't remember when he showered! Ewwwww. He also takes the laundry. Such a good husband. Grandpa and I settle in to watch some TV special about the 100 films that make you "feel good".

The end of another day. I get the stuff to make up our sofa bed and grandpa goes to bed. After settling in, Paulie makes me get up and move the fan so he can "feel it". So I huff outta bed and put it on the table. It feels like we are in a wind tunnel. This ain't gonna work yanno. "Perfect", he says. OK...I grab blankets and cover myself head to toe. Paulie promptly falls asleep with the TV on. I poke him and tell him to shut the darn thing off. Another blissful night in the Meandering Ziaja's rig.

Day 17

We wake up to some partly cloudy skies. Weather looks threatening for the weekend. No problem, we have a shelter for not only our meeting, but if it rains, our potluck too.

Don't know what the plans are for today. I'll post more later.

hugs

dee

Day 14…

I think when I die I shall collect on all the good things I have done in my life. Perhaps no one will agree with me here, but this trip has earned me some big points with the old man in heaven if I have anything to say about it. I have graciously given up my shotgun seat in the rig for grandpa. Do you know what its like to sit in the back of the motorhome for 7, 8 hours at a time? It sucks. You can’t see anything. Nothing. Nada. Perhaps some trees flip by at 65 MPH but that’s about it. No panoramic view of the landscape, no highway signs to read, no hearing the radio. Of course, I have tried to knit. No success there…the sweater I brought to work on is Zack’s Christmas present and it has cables and moss pattern across the back and chest and there is no way I can do cables in this bumpy thing. I have tried to lay on the sofa. My feet hang over by at least 18 inches. Then, if I do settle myself on the couch, my head is right by the kitty litter thingy. Ugh. No cat poopies to smell but the litter smell (you know the perfumey stuff that they put on it….) makes me gag. I have tried to stick my nose under a lap robe to stop the smell, but that only makes me get a headache from the lack of oxygen. I have even tried to stick my fingers up my nose to block the smell. I have several nail jabs in my nose that now bleed… I can’t win it seems. I suppose I could tell grandpa that I’d like to sit up in front for a while, but I’d feel guilty. When we set out two weeks ago, I told grandpa sitting in the recliner was alright for me as it helped keep my legs up and my hip from hurting. So, I lied. I sure hope Paulie realizes the sacrifice I have made for him. Nah, the thought prolly never crossed his mind.

We left Duxbury about 9:45 this morning. Sunshine. How beautiful. Too bad we didn’t have better weather while visiting with the kids and Maureen. Maybe next time. We stopped about 2 pm to let fat Pepi take a tinkle and for me to fix some sandwiches for a late lunch. I found a Passport America park in Akron, NY which has a spot for tonight. It is just outside of Buffalo…and half off the fee will make this a cheapie stop. This is only the second time we have used PA but hopefully we will save some money from this point on.

Not much to write about as I can’t SEE anything to write about. I am glad we got to see both girls graduate. That is important to a kid, and neither kid has an overabundance of relatives around. It was fun to share their excitement and this milestone for each of them. I was happy to see both of my sisters also. We don’t get to visit in person too much, mostly telephone calls are all that keeps us in touch.

I’ll try to write more after we get settled at the campground.

Hugs

Dee

Akron NY
Day 14 continued…

We are at Sleepy Hollow or some such thing campground. Mostly permanent trailers and 5th wheels. We pulled in about 6:15. Grandpa was still in the shotgun/navigator seat. I am giving directions from the recliner. I just KNOW this is not gonna work…! How do I know this? This has happened before…in Florida, in GA, in TN, in KY…been there done that. Trouble is, grandpa can’t see so therefore he won’t be able to spot the street signs. OK, not to say I told ya so….we totally miss the campground. By this time, I have a raging headache. Paul goes about three miles before he can turn around. I think that I am gonna tell Paul that grandpa does not get to sit shotgun/navigator when we are off the highway and looking for a campground after 9 or 10 long hours on the highway. We throw together a really bad dinner of overcooked steak, nasty corn (that’s what ya get when you buy unknown store brands of frozen corn, Paulie) and burnt pirogues. Ick. The only thing that tasted good was the gin and tonic. Since we had water hookups, grandpa and I took showers. Nice hot showers. We will try to get on the road about 9 a.m. tomorrow. We are just east of Buffalo so we don’t want to get caught up in the rush hour traffic. Until tomorrow.

Dee

Day 15…

I have this gut feeling, it’s gonna be one of those days. Grandpa thinks its 8 a.m. and yells for us to get up. It’s like 6 a.m. Paul yells, “Go back to bed old man it’s not time to get up yet!” Like now I can go back to sleep. I realize I am freezing. I am sharing two old quilts with Paulie and during the night put the down comforter that sheds feathers on me. I am still cold. So, Paul gets up and gets dressed, tells me he has a coupla things to do outside. He resets the alarm and off he goes. I am still freezing. I need coffee. I get up. *Sigh*. I hurt all over. First thing…turn on the damm heat. June 13th and we are putting on the heat in the rig. Go figure. I make up the sofa bed. I try the TV…no TV pops on. I think “hmmmm” and clean the coffee pot and make fresh. I plug in…I think “hmmmmm” no electric. I yell out the door at Paulie. There is a guy cutting limbs in a nearby tree. Paulie tells me that the guy had shut off the electric so he could cut limbs. Oh. Guess he didn’t want to be a French fry. So, even though we paid for electric, we fire up the genset. No problem. Coffee gets made. Grandpa comes outta the bedroom. I make some toast for us and we get the rig ready to roll. After stopping at the campground dump we are heading out. Well, I ask Paulie if he remembers how to get back to I90. Both he and grandpa chorus. “…sure…!” I stupidly believe them. It is déjà vu all over again. Paul misses the last turn and we have to go a couple of miles to turn around. How can someone’s sense of direction be lost overnight? I let it happen again. Grandpa is riding shotgun and doesn’t know where the hell to turn. The inmates have the keys.

To further make my day, I stupidly ask Paulie if he had put the black tank deodorizer in the tank. Yes, he replies but then adds we only have two tablets left. Uh oh, says I. You’d think I’d learn NOT to say such things. I got a 20 minute lecture that a) we will be in Henry before we need to dump again (whatever Paul….) and b) we can BUY more (whatever Paul….) and yada yada yada. I think he just likes the sound of his own voice for pete’s sake.

Can ya tell yet that I am not having a stellar day? What gave me away?
Perhaps its being in the damm recliner again. Or maybe I just got up cranky? Oh well. It’s now 10:40 a.m. and we have only been on the road for an hour. I think it’s gonna be a long day.

Later

Dee

Day 15 continued…

Grandpa strikes again…

Gee, twice in one day. I keep telling myself that we are setting ourselves up for disaster when he is playing navigator. We have wonderfully detailed directions from Yahoo. Problem is, he just doesn’t READ the damm things. The directions for example state…” merge on I90 to Brea Hwy and go .10 of a mile”…he will tell Paul…”merge onto Brea Hwy”…forgetting the freaking one tenth of a mile….I see the I480 sign fly past. We end up in the Cleveland Airport. Hmmm…ya think Paulie would TELL him to let me be navigator? Oh, nooooooo, I guess he doesn’t want to hurt his feelings. OK, sympathy boy, turn this sucker around 4 miles outta the way in some potholey parking lot. See if I care.

I get huffy and get my pillows. Fatty Pepi and I take a nap. So there. Deal with directions impaired grandpa.

Then….Paul says…”I want to keep moving…make sandwiches for us.” Excuse me? Do I LOOK like a waitress? Or a sure footed stewardess? Oh sure, my dearest life companion…I shall just jump right outta my recliner from which all I can see is the occasional side of a truck as we whiz past….and make you a delicious sandwich. OK, for those of you readers who have tried to do anything in a motorhome while it’s moving, let me explain to the uninitiated. Walking in a motorhome moving at 65 mph is like being in the rolling barrel at the carnival. If you have any balance, you just may be able to get to the bathroom without smacking your face into a wall or the slideout. Forget going potty. The toilet is enclosed in a closet that is about 3 by 4…pulling down your pants can be one hell of a challenge especially if the driver takes a curve too fast, decides to shift lanes quickly or hits the brake. Wall sandwiches are not uncommon and certainly not painless. Now, I am balance impaired anyways, so just getting outta the recliner is a real challenge. OK. Laugh at the mental picture here dear readers…it really is funny. Bobbing and weaving to the galley, I open the fridge. Immediately with the reflexes of a cat, I grab the mayo jar AND the mustard jar tumbling out from certain destruction if they hit the ceramic tile in the galley. I grab the bread and reach across the aisle to grab some paper plates. Paulie hits the jake brake and I wind up laying across the dinette. OK, no broken bones, just some dried baby’s breath up my nose from the table décor, cussing under my breath. OK, get bread on plates. Look up towards front of rig…oh no! Curve! Brace against stove. Smack my private area with a knob. Curse again, questioning Paul’s paternity. Slather bread with mayo. Another freaking curve, but Mario Andretti decides to change lanes ON the curve. Now I utter some words I don’t think anyone has heard before. I slap the meat on the bread. OK…smash the top breads on the sandwiches so they don’t fall apart in Mario’s hands as he eats while he drives. I leave my entire hand print. Then I stagger up to the driver and shotgun seats. I thrust the sandwich at grandpa. “Oh, thanks so much”. Right. I have to hit Mario on the shoulder to take his stupid sandwich. Grandpa makes some crack about not knowing I was a stewardess. I mutter something under my breath about how they are gonna pay and plant my bum in the recliner. I eat about ¼ of a sandwich and promptly get the meat stuck in my tummy. Up and into the bathroom to barf. Ugh. Try and barf in a moving motorhome. I clean up (!) and go lay down again. OK, that’s lunch!

Paul decides we should try for Joliet. No way Mario. I say, how about South Bend? There are several campgrounds and there is also a Elks Lodge with dinner and a pool! OK we decide the Lodge at South Bend it is. We get off the highway and go thru downtown SB. Nice, really nice. We can only see tops of buildings of Notre Dame. We miss the left turn as the sign says only Rte 20 not Bus Rte 20. Drats, we turn around and get back on track. We park the rig and go have some dinner. First a nice cocktail, then another, THEN dinner. Grandpa and I have stuffed trout. Ick, they serve it with SKIN on….! Paul gets chicken. After dinner I have an amaretto with my coffee. I want to forget today, yanno? We zigzag back to the rig, watch a bit of TV and settle in for the night.

Day 16.

We are up and out by 9. Stop at McDonalds to have some breakfast and dump the computer. Well, this is the only McDonalds in South Bend without wifi. Figures. I know how to pick ‘em. We are back on I80/I90 and on our way. Hit a bit of a log jam at the Illinois border, so what else is new? We have about 140 miles to go. I am getting sleepy…must be naptime!

Later….hugs, Dee
Day 16 continued….

Well, we made it….over 1200 miles in two and a half days! We are in Geneseo IL at the Geneseo Campground. Very nice place. The restrooms/shower rooms are the cleanest I have ever seen in a campground. I took a shower immediately. I just cannot stand being unbathed for more than a day or so. Ugh. After having a sandwich, we will probably go into town to get some groceries. I have signed up for Perisomething wifi here at the campground. Pricey but this way I can link up here in the rig. No more finding a McDonalds that has or doesn’t have access…of course now that I have paid the ransom(!) I find out that there is free wifi all over town. *Sigh*. Oh well, I can go on 24/7 until we leave. Hope you enjoy this chapter of my continuing saga. Please don’t think I am picking on Paulie and grandpa…however bear in mind that I have not been blessed with patience nor do I suffer fools gladly, no matter what you might have been lead to believe!

Hugs,

Dee

Well, with the sun came an incredibly beautiful day. After breakfest at Friendly's we took a ride to the beach. I have some pictures added here. We came home and sat in the yard soaking up the warmth of the sun's rays. We just visited for most of the day. We went to pick up Philip from work and picked up some brats. We had a great supper of potato salad, brats, hotdogs and chips. What a difference a day makes. Too bad we didn't have this weather for most of our trip. Oh well...enjoy the pictures.

hugs

dee

PS...some reason is preventing me from uploading the pix where I want them...sorry...I added one of the graduate and brother Philip.

Sunday....well, as we arose from restless night's sleep...we discover... the SUN! Yes, it really is the sun shining over Duxbury. We get up quickly so we don't miss this unusual occurrence. Wow, it is beautiful. After watching the morning news, we realize that it is only temporary. Clouds and rain are moving back into the area this afternoon. *Sigh*. Oh well, we'll be pushing off from here tomorrow, hopefully going back to normal midwestern SUNSHINE. Well, we can only hope.

The graduation ceremony was very nice. I think the DHS orchestra is the best high school ensemble I have had the pleasure of hearing. It was held in a beautiful theatre/auditorium. We were unfortunately in the rafters so we couldn't even find Taylor in the sea of white and green robes. The speeches from the kids were just awful. I guess being outsiders we just didn't "get it". Only Duxbury insiders got the points. We let out a nice loud yell for Tay as she was called to get her diploma. The huge crowd was terrible to navigate as we tried to make our way to the door. By this time, my ears were unbearable and I just needed to get away from the very large mass of people. We finally found Tay and got outta Dodge. We took some nice pictures at the house and then Maureen and the kids went to a party down the block. Paul and I headed back to the rig and I went right to bed. I tell ya, this rain crap is making me crazy. I am determined to find a place that has little rain and certainly no barometer craziness.

I got up about 6:30 and we decided to get a pizza. Just as we sat down to eat, Maureen and Philip got home. I shared my meatball sandwich with Mo, and Philip didn't want anything. After dinner, Mo and I went over to the house and just talked and watched TV.

It was a nice quiet day. We are planning to go out to breakfast this morning as Taylor's "party".

Well, we are now off into the sunshine to have breakfast. I will post more later.

hugs

Dennise

Duxbury MA, scene of flooding and animals pairing up....

Well, its now day um, gee what day is it? With all this rain I have lost track. Oh well, its really not that important. Today is Saturday, graduation day for Tay. Maureen came home from work on Thursday not feeling well. We did convince her to go with us to Friendly's for dinner. We even talked her into a chocolate shake. Only shakes are not called that here, they are called fuzzies or fribbies or some other goofy name. We had a nice time. Back at the house, we talked Maureen into a grandpa deluxe gin and tonic. We all went to bed happy.

Friday was pretty much a blah day...rain continues to pound New England and many towns are experiencing flooding and local rivers are cresting. We did manage to get to the Quincy IRS office to get some help on this tax notice thing that Zack received. Actually the man (really geeky kinda fella who mans the office by himself) was quite helpful. He told us how to notify the TX service center that the taxes had been paid on the distribution on our 04 taxes, not Zack's. After leaving the IRS we picked up Philip from school then headed to my favorite clam chowder place, the Milepost, for a late lunch. The chowder was as wonderful as I remembered it. Paul and I split the Duxbury Seafood plate, grandpa had liver and onions (ewww!) and Mo had fish and chips. The food is wonderful. I am sure its just frozen stuff like most places, but the scallops just melted in your mouth. Quite good I must confess.

Since we had a late lunch, we skipped doing dinner. I visited with Maureen and Philip in the house and grandpa and Paulie stayed and watched TV in the rig. We all shuffled off to bed about 11:30. The weather guy on the local news was not encouraging. Not at all. Rain. What can I say?

I'll post more about the graduation later today.

hugs
dee

This picture was taken at the party after the graduation gig.

From left to right....me, with my new two-toned blondie look, Dominique, Paul, Jordan, Jan and the graduate, Courtny

Duxbury, MA

This morning on the Today show, our ol' friend Al, you know Roker, said that the storm coming in to the New England area was a real yankee nor'easter. Surely he jests. Nor'easter my butt, we were in the middle of a freakn' hurrican that hit landfall. If this had been two months earlier we'd have been buried in 6 feet of snow. No way would I live in this place. Buffeted by winds that moved the rig from lane to lane on its own, we tooled along the CT coast then into MA. Driving cold rain. Noah, where are you when we need you? We stopped for lunch late, about 2 p.m. in a town called Sharon or something similar. We didn't find a place to eat but we did find the TajMahal (sorry no spell check for foreign landmarks) of supermarkets. Big Y. Amazing place. Two times the size of Super WalMart, I am not kidding. They had a baby grand piano in the cafe area. No, really. Paul and I split a sub sandwich that made Subway look like a hotpocket. Loaded with meat and cheese, pimento, pickles, red and green peppers, lettuce, tomatoes and all the good stuff like oil and vinegar, mayo and mustard. OH. So good. Grandpa had Boston Baked Bean Chili. And he wonders why he farts every other step he takes. Between that and the gin....just kidding. We get back on the road and the rain is still coming down in torrents. We get to I93 and head toward Duxbury. We have no problems with the mapquest directions until we get to the last one...we don't know where number one starts. A local pulls up and says "who ya tryin' to find, I know all the folks here....". I mention Demmert. The guy gives us a stupid look. I say...they're renters. Oh he says and points to the house just across the street. I call the house and Philip answers. I tell him to look out his front window. He does and starts laughing. Paulie manages to get us into the driveway. Philip and I visit for most of the afternoon and Paul and grandpa get the rig settled. One of Maureen's friends had brought an entire turkey dinner with all the trimmings including apple pie for dessert! We warmed it up and had a nice dinner when Taylor, the graduate got home from work. We watched some tv after dinner and talked with Philip. At ten we decide to get ready for bed. Philip has to go to school tomorrow, but Taylor is done. She too is very excited about graduation. Oh, in case you might be wondering, where is my sister Maureen? Well, she had some scheduled meetings tonight in Boston. Due to the weather, some of the trains are not running or tracks are flooded(or something like that) so she gets to stay in a downtown hotel! We won't get to see her until tomorrow. The rain is still coming down and I will see the TV weather a bit later. Not sure what we can do in the rain tomorrow. We'll see tomorrow.

Until tomorrow....

dee

Day three continued…

After Jan and the graduate left, Grandpa got up and then lay down on the couch and promptly fell asleep again. I watched a bit of TV (the only station we can get is NBC and they have the worst soaps I have ever seen…the acting is really bad…I didn’t know what was going on so I just watched in amazement at the fugly actresses and really tacky and trashy wardrobes. Now I know why I watch all the ABC soaps. For all of you NBC soap fans, tough…they really stink, so there)

Paul busied himself cleaning the air ducts and filters and then vacuuming the floor vents. Grandpa woke up and said he felt better. We decided to go to Cumberland so I could upload my blog and get some groceries. Paul called Damon and spoke to one of their service folks to find out how to get the wipers fixed. The Damon rep promised that the regional Damon guy would call and give us some information on where we can get the parts or get it repaired outright. We piled into the car and then drove around the campground to find out where the beaches and the fishing docks were.
We stopped at a local RV/Truck/Bus repair place off I68 and they told us to bring in the rig tomorrow morning. Meantime, the Damon guy called back and told us there weren’t any local dealers in this part of Maryland. We were ok with that as we felt we had found some seemingly knowledgeable repair guys. We then drove to McDonalds and since we hadn’t had any lunch and it was now almost two, we decided to have a bite to eat there. Even though I hate fast food, I didn’t really want to search for another place to eat. I was able to connect to SBC Freedom after about ten tries…so aggravating. I love wifi, but it can be really a pain in the tush to get logged on. After uploading my blog, we decided not to go all the way to WalMart as it was raining again, and just go to the local market, Martins. I really like Martins…it is like a Schnucks and has a wide variety of stuff. Paul went to the service counter and got a discount card, while I had a field day looking at all the food stuff that I have never seen before. I now have at least 20 discount shopping cards in my wallet from all of the places we have shopped while on the road over the years. Then I wonder why my purse weighs a ton. Paul does all the grocery shopping. He says I buy too much stuff we’d never eat. Yeah, right. Actually, I have a difficult time in grocery stores as the fluorescent lights combined with the high vertical shelving and long aisles make me spin. I have actually scared the hell out of lots of people in grocery stores. I am so wicked. My favorite Meniere’s trick is to have a drop attack. These actually have a medical name…Episodes of Tumarkin. No, I am not making this up! It is as if someone comes up from behind you and pushes you down. It is very freaky and very dangerous if you hit something. I can usually get right up…ok so I have to work at getting up with my bad knees but there is no vertigo or spins and so I don’t barf. So far I have only broken ribs and had some serious sprains. Plus I have as I stated earlier, I give a lot of folks a scare.

After we shopped, we headed back to the campground and unloaded the groceries. Paul called the Rocky Gap Lodge to find out how much the fishing licenses cost and where they could be purchased. He and grandpa headed out to buy the licenses and I decided to lie down. My bad hip was giving me grief and I had a headache from the stupid rainy weather. My ears were doing chimes in both ears so it was time to take a break. Pepi and Snickers decided to join me in the bedroom….Pepi snuggled between my feet and Snickers plopped her fat butt on my stomach. I couldn’t nap as my hip was nagging me to death so I decided to just get up. About then Paul and grandpa got back from the license dealies and I decided to go to the beach area and dock to watch them fish. I grabbed my trusty can of insect repellent and bottle of water and we were off on a fishing adventure.

We settled on the dock, Paul at one end and grandpa on the other. I sat in a camp chair and read USA Today and bird watched. Since I have no clue to the particular species here (or any where for that matter…) I spotted what I think was an Oriole. He sat on the driver’s side mirror on the car and excitedly pecked at the bird he saw reflected. He jabbered at it several times and then flapping his wings, he began to peck again. I do enjoy watching birds, they are fascinating. Suddenly, the sound of thunder came rolling in over the water. No lightening. I am not an outdoorsy person and truly believe I will get struck by lightening before I can win the lottery so I scurried back to the car. After a short time it stopped and I ventured back out to the dock. Poor choice. As soon as I settled into the chair, it started to rain again. Undeterred to enjoy watching the men in my life feed worms to the clever little fishies, I go back to the car and get my golf umbrella, the one that covers a small village. Once again, I get settled and back reading the paper. Now, Mother Nature plays one of her wicked scare the humans trick and a flash of lightning and the downpour begins anew. I grab my water, my trustyy insect repellent, the umbrella the paper and I am in the car before you can say chicken. So much for fresh bass cooked over an open fire for dinner. Paul and Grandpa load up the car and its back to the rig. It is completely dry at the campsite.

Paul warms up some ribs for me and grandpa for dinner while he finishes off the chicken sandwich he didn’t finish at lunch. All of a sudden, the storm arrives. Pepi pulls his usual scared sh*tless routine, diving under the couch pillows while Snickers calmly gives herself a bath. With the sound of rain upon the roof we all settle in to pass the evening watching TV with terrible reception. Ah, camping. What an adventure.

Later.

Dee

Day Four

After listening to the rain fall all night, morning came all too early for me. Paul had set his alarm for 7 so he could get up and go shower at the shower house. I got up after he left, made up the sofa bed, made coffee and then a warm protein and sat down to watch the Today show for a couple of minutes. Grandpa got up and then Paulie came back from showering and took little fat Pepi for his morning constitutional. I got dressed and did up the few dishes we had in the sink. Time to clean up and secure everything for the trip to the repair shop to fix the windshield wipers. Grandpa and I went in the car and Paul followed in the rig. We got to the repair shop right at nine as scheduled. We piled into the car and off we went in search of breakfast. Paul mentioned McDonalds which I quickly shot down as a really, really bad idea. I wanted my eggs and bacon and dammit, I was gonna have ‘em! We found a place called Penny’s Diner which was just outside the mall. The boys ordered Farmers Omelets and I got two over easy with bacon. When the waitress arrived with the platters, we all started to laugh. All three of us could have feasted on just one of the omelets! They were HUGE and came with toast and hash browns. The Farmers omelet had bacon, sausage, ham, green peppers, onions and mushrooms all topped with cheddar cheese. It would feed Paul for two days. We dug in and enjoyed the good food. As I was about to take a sip of coffee, two flys that seemed to be doing some sort of mating dance around my head, swirled in the air and plunk! Right smack into my perfectly good cup of coffee. Well, killing two insects with one cup of joe was good, even the waitress was impressed. We finished up and headed towards WalMart for grandpa’s prescription…which he “forgot” to fill when we were home. Paul had spent the better part of an hour calling Walgreens back home, AARP and the program druggist getting it all taken care of.

I wanted to get a headset for my laptop so I could practice my Spanish learning tapes without disturbing anyone. I found those, got some face cream and some sleeping pills and the boys found some “swim/shower” shoes
for the shower house. Of course, the reason for our trip to Walmart was to get the prescription, but due to some snafau with Grandpa’s insurance the prescription was on hold. After WalMart we picked up the motorhome and headed back to the campground. We set up camp for the second time in record time. It was nice that we had cleaned the rig before we left this morning and had a nice clean house to come home to.

Later that day, WalMart called to let us know the prescription mess had been straightened out at long last. We all piled back into the car and off to WalMart we went. After picking up the prescription, and leaving the store, Paul noticed that grandpa had his new tennies on…with the PRICETAG still on the shoes! It’s a good thing we didn’t get nabbed for shoplifting! No one would believe that we had purchased the shoes earlier in the day. Grandpa would have been off to the pokie for that!

We stopped at the Cumberland Elks Lodge for some wings and hamburgers. We watched the “league” shuffleboard challenge (!) for awhile…not MY idea of a fun Friday night to be sure, but, heck I not in charge, yanno! After dinner we walked around the downtown area for a while. There is a seasonal Cumberland After Five celebration every Friday night throughout the summer. Various types of entertainment and bands perform, and the local restaurants serve alfresco to diners. Even though the weather was threatening, there were a lot of folks enjoying the evening. Paul bought me a sugar-free mocha from The Daily Grind. After out little stroll we headed back to camp, and by the time we had arrived, the rain had come back with a vengeance. Jan was supposed to attend Josh’s graduation party after the ceremony, and then stop by to visit afterwards. Grandpa turned in about 9 p.m. At 10:00 we hadn’t heard from her, so Paul and I were just about to pull out the sofa bed out where headlights flashed into our campsite. Jan apologized for not calling and we talked for about an hour. We made plans for her to drive over in the morning to pick me up. We would have some breakfast, and get our pedicures.

After she left, Paul and I settled in for the night to the comforting sound of rain on the rig’s roof.

Day Five…Saturday

The sound of my cell phone woke us up at 7 a.m. Paul reached for the phone which was on the side table above his head. He reached just a bit too far and promptly fell out of bed. It was Jan, asking US what time it was! She thought she was late…Paul assured her that she wasn’t late and that she had said she’d pick me up at 9:30. Paul told me he was ok and we both fell back asleep. I awoke about 9:00 and got up with all intentions of going to the shower-house. I had purchased some hair stuff that I wanted to do but thought better of it knowing what the shower house was like. I decided to just put some clothes on, pack some more clothes to change into after I shower over at the house and get ready. Jan showed up about 9:40 and off we went. We went to a local place for coffee. I ordered a waffle and she ordered an English muffin. My waffle was awful. How can you screw up a freaking waffle? Easy…blacken the edges and let it get soggy. Serve with two small margarine packages and crappy syrup and there you have a nasty tasting waffle. After a nice long visit and a couple of coffee refills, we were on our way to the toe palace for our pedicures. Of course, it’s now about 11 a.m. and the gal tells us our appointments are for 2 and 3. Ooops. Jan strikes again. She obviously had changed the appointments when she had gotten the day off. However, since she had made these appointments, her day off was taken away and she must have thought she had changed them. So we head for the mall where there is another nail place. We get there and do some window shopping at BonTon’s. What a nice store. They had a 50 to 60% off sale so there were some nice bargains available. I don’t need anything since I had just replenished my summer wardrobe at Wally world the other day!

I asked her if there was a good hair salon in the mall as I wanted to have my hair trimmed in the neck area. Before I knew it, I was in a salon chair, my hair was being colored and cut. Since the front part of my hair is grey, most colors in the blonde range won’t cover the greys. I would have to go dark, and then have it streaked in order to color up the grey. I decided to just do the blonde as Paulie is always bugging me to “go blonde”. Well, I now have two toned hair in two really blonde shades. Hmmm. As they say…”it’ll grow out…”. Good. I can’t wait. The stylist did show me how to better use some hair “glue” to really maximize the style I was now the proud owner of. It’s very similar to what I always wear, just fuller. After picking out shampoo, conditioner, and styling products I was done. Jan insisted on “treating” me. She wanted to tell me how much she appreciated my help when she needed me last year. I told her that’s what sisters are for…to be there for each other. She wanted to do something special to thank me. It was very nice. From the hair salon, we went to the nail spa and I had a pedicure and a manicure. I am sporting some pretty good looking nails if I say so myself. All the protein and vitamins I take! By the time my nails were dry, Jan was running late for work so we rushed off so she could get changed. I had a quick half a peanut butter sandwich on Weight Watchers bread and a WW lemon twinkie type thing. Jan went off to work and I watched General Hospital on soapnet until Courtny came home from work. She had plans for a picnic but was happy to take me back to camp. Back at the campground, Paul was gone exploring and grandpa was sleeping. I sat with fatty Pepi and Snickers. I tried to nap, but my hip was bothering me. That’s what I get for chasing Jan all day! When grandpa got up when Paul got home, I slipped into the bedroom and promptly fell asleep. Paul woke me about 7 when he had dinner ready. We had a really nasty steak, overdone sweet potatoes and some really good salad! I am now sitting here trying to stay awake enough to write this!

Tomorrow we think we will go to Jan’s and have a BBQ. That’s the plan.

Later,

Dee

Day Six…

Another rainy crappy day…this time the air is much cooler. We all get up around 9 or so. I make coffee and Paulie makes grandpa some breakfast. After my coffee I am just feeling terrible. Grandpa asks me if I am ok…he tells me that my eyes are going in different directions. I decide to go lay down in the bedroom. Paul and Grandpa go off to fish again. I sleep. And I sleep…all day. Jan did call and ask how the boat ride was, and I tell her that I was so dizzy this morning all I have done is sleep. She tells us to come to her house for dinner around four. OK, I agree and then it’s right back to sleep. Paul and grandpa return, fishless once again. I tell them we need to be at Jan’s about 4 p.m. Paul says, well, its four now. Ooops. I get dressed, they wash up and we head over to Jan’s house. It is still rainy and very cool. We sit out on the back patio for a while. Jan and Jordan are making mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, fresh fruit and steak. Paul and I bring veggies to roast. I show Jordan how to slice the veggies then I season them with olive oil and salt and pepper. Paul grills the steaks and soon we are chowing down some excellent fool. After dinner we just sit around on the patio until it is too cool to stay outside. We all sit in the living room and Courtny sets up the DVD. We all sit around and watch The Wedding Crashers. Paul and I have already seen it but it still is very funny. After the movie, Jan serves fresh fruit and Weight Watchers Key Lime pie. After our late dessert we pack up and head back to the rig. Grandpa goes to bed and Paul and I watch the news. About 11 we head to bed ourselves.

Day Seven…

I can’t believe we’ve been gone a week. Too bad the weather has been so dismal and wet. It has really put a damper on our get together with Jan and the girls. Alex has been sick since Friday, and Jan had to work on two of her four days off. Well, tonight is the graduation and then we shove off for Boston tomorrow morning. I wish we could have had better weather and been able to cook out here at the campground with the girls. Oh well, maybe next time. After we had breakfast and coffee this morning, I went and took a shower. My hair was making me crazy so it was time to wash it, color or no color. I have decided I am going to get a rinse to cover this blonde. I guess I will have to go dark to cover the grey. It’s a pain to be old I guess. I had gotten a call from Jan this a.m. and said she’d call me when she got back from picking up Alex from school and picking up the cake. That was at 9:30 and its now 11 and I haven’t heard anything yet. I am hungry since I didn’t eat any breakfast. I think I will make a sandwich. Paul and grandpa left about ten minutes to try one more time to fish. Hmmmm. They must be using the wrong bait or they are not very good fisherman.

Later.

Dee

I made a wonderful ½ sandwich of swiss, honey ham, tomato on white with mayo. I could eat this sandwich til the cows come home. Jan called and is on her way to pick me up. Need to run some errands for the graduation gig tonight.

We head into town and get the van washed, pick up the cake, order ballons and then run into the market. I get Court some flowers and the strawberries grandpa loved from dinner at Jan’s on Sunday. I also bought some new salad dressing since I don’t care for ranch all the time. $27 later, we go back to Jan’s house. I attempt to help her put up a shelf and mirror. I totally screw up the entire thing and leave two huge gaping holes in the wall. I thought we were using toggle bolts but these were screw-in type I had thought I had used before however, I was wrong. Gosh I hate goofing up something so easy. I will have to make it up to her somehow.

Courtny is really excited about graduation. We get to the gym at 6:10 and it’s already standing room only for the ceremony that starts at 7 p.m. Climbing up to the top of the bleachers almost does me in. My knees don’t work and the hip is hurting enough to make me cry. I feel like a 100 year old cripple as folks reach out and help me up. Paul is late. He was packing up the outside stuff and discovered carpenter ants had begun to consume the firewood we had from the inside out. He needed to de-ant everything before packing it away in the basement storage. We don’t need carpenter ants gnawing on our rig now do we? He arrives at the graduation and there is absolutely no room for him to get up to where we are. After a really hoaky beginning the graduation ceremony got better. Then the choir sang a terrible rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water. Jeesh the seniors who sang the solos were so very off key! Then came the interminable awards (which should have been done at a separate ceremony in my not so humble opinion….) and scholarship presentations. Good golly, they went on forever. Then, finally the awarding of the diplomas. Courtny was in the third to the last row so it took a while. After Court got her diploma I had to get out of there. I was hurting so badly I took some of my hoarded pain pills. I had to go to the bathroom which was down two flights of stairs. Geesh I can’t wait to get this damm hip taken care of. Paul and I got in the car and booked. We stopped at Taco Bell as both Paul and I were starving. We arrived back at Jan’s house and then proceeded to the Ullery’s house where the graduates will gather to have some cake. We stayed about an hour then made our goodbyes. It is always hard to say goodbye to my sister. This time I didn’t cry. I miss her a lot and wish she lived closer. Maybe when she is able she will move closer.

Paulie and I crashed as soon as we got back. We got up about 8 or so. By the time we had packed up and dumped it was ten before we got on the road.
I developed a nasty headache as we hit the highway. Must be incoming rain. We saw some beautiful scenery. Certainly is more scenic than central Illinois by a long shot. We drove through the mountains of Maryland and Pennsylvania. We continued north through PA and on to New Jersey. After NJ we sailed into Ct. After a lot of hours on the highway we decided to find a campground. We had stopped at a McDonalds about 6 to have some dinner…well, it you call fast food dinner. I had a hot dog and the boys had chicken sandwiches. Eh. I would have preferred some authentic Italian lasagna or pizza but beggars can’t be choosers while traveling. We pulled into Riverdale Farm Campground about 7 pm. There is a trout stream just below the campground and grandpa is chomping at the bit. We could easily stay here another night so he could get some fish. I don’t think Maureen and the kids would mind as they are in school and work when we would arrive. Hmmm…I’ll call tomorrow and feel them out.

We have city water, cable tv and 50 amps. Heaven on a RV pad, LOL!

Well, I am going to finish the gin and tonic grandpa made for me…more tomorrow.

Later

Dee

Day Eight….

Noah and the flood…

It has rained everyday since we started out. I am sick to death of rain. It is supposed to rain every day until Sunday. *Sigh*. Nothing I can do about it however this trip so far has been all wet. Literally. I have no pictures to speak of from Cumberland and Rocky Gap because it rained the entire time we were there. We stayed at a beautiful park in New Haven Ct and I have no pictures because it rained again. And again, and again.

We finally got to watch some TV as the park has cable. I would have much rather been outside enjoying the scenery and the view, but because of the rain, we were once again stuck inside the rig. We had an ok night, actually grandpa and I slept ok as he makes one hell of a gin and tonic. We finally decided to move along about 11 am. No use staying here in the rain, so I didn’t even call Maureen to see if us being a day late would be ok. By the time we got unhooked, attached the car and got moving it was almost 11:30. We are in no rush. We only have about 180 miles to Maureen’s house so we should be there by the time the kids are home from school. What fun. Rain.

Later.

dee