Friday continued….

Well, I didn’t get to shower. I stuck a visor on my head and we were off exploring. The boys actually agreed to go to the craft fair. When they said this I figured I better act fact therefore…no shower. We finally found the craft show along the huge lakeshore park, and wow! I do believe this was the largest craft show I have ever been to! Ah what irony…I can hardly walk for goodness sakes! Rows upon rows of handmade jewelry, neat stuff etc… I shall have nightmares about the booths I missed! Some stuff was really neat and different from your ordinary crafty stuff. Some was stuff hand painted by some poor soul whose family encouraged her to paint and sell her stuff. Atrocious. Really fugly stuff. Painted frogs are not cute. Dress them like people and they are really not cute. What are these people thinking? Selling cotton dishcloths at 6 for a dollar is not a hand crafted item. These looked like stuff from Big lots. Palm trees seem to be big this year, of course, I knew this…
There were lots of ladies clothes, some handpainted with flousy flowers (ick) some from India (really kewl, Paulie pulled me away drooling) and then the standard jackets made from sweatshirts (I could use one up here with these cold nights, but nooooo, Paulie kept pulling me away from these also.). Lots of tie dyed stuff with really hefty prices. We did buy a gift for Sue’s birthday, and we also bought a hand painted sign for the motorhome. I will take a picture of it and post it later. It is really cute. Can you believe that I forgot what color the stripe is on my rig? I thought it was dark brown so that’s what I chose. When we got back I see its actually dark green. So who will notice except me?

After trouncing about for two hours, we were ready to eat. The carnival type food smelled just awful. I can’t do that kinda food anymore. We remembered Sue had mentioned an Old World Buffet with polish cuisine so that’s where we headed. After a few wrong turns, we found it. I must say the food was incredible. Nothing tasted Americanized. Grandpa went nuts over several things, mostly the fresh polish sausage. We immediately thought of all of our Chicago friends and decided to give Karen Kraus a call. It was good to talk to her after being on the road for a while. Emails sometimes just don’t cut it. Bet we find ourselves there again soon. After the delicious buffet, we found a Super Walmart so Paulie can load up on his addiction…er, his favorite beverage Lipton Sugarfree Peach Ice Tea mix. We picked up a few other items and headed back to the rig.

We spent a quiet evening sipping Bloody Marys outside enjoying the evening. It did turn cool so we watched a bit of TV in the rig. We were all pretty tired and the drinks made that worse so we were in bed by 11.

Don’t know what Saturday plans are so I will update later.

Hugs
Dee






Saturday

We kinda slept a bit late this morning. I had another wonderfully peaceful night…just kidding. About 3 I woke up, which is beginning to be a habit btw, and was just a bit on the cold side. I think the weather guy said it would be about 56 degrees. With windows open, that’s pretty nice sleeping weather, IF you have a warm blankie to keep you cozy. Paulie and I are sharing some raggy old quilts that have to be 20 years old. He uses them at home…oh gee, don’t get me started on Paulie’s sleeping habits at home, I could write a book on that alone. Anyways, I got up to use the bathroom and decided I would just go steal the down comforter off the bed in the bedroom. Grandpa doesn’t use it, and when I haul out the bedding for us to assemble each night for bed, I always drag that sucker out…just in case. Last night Paulie got the bedding and obviously left it behind. He hates it as there is a small little hole somewheres and a few feathers float in the air every now and then. Big deal. Well, it makes Paulie nutso to see feathers on the floor. Sometimes I just don’t get him. Anyways, I pile on the comforter and at last I am comfortable. I must have drifted off for a minute when I awoke with a searing pain in the old hip…again. Gosh, this is getting really old fast. I suffer for a while and finally about 5 am I get up and take two vicodin. I am finally able to sleep.

After making the bed up and starting the coffee, we settle in to watch the morning news. Paulie makes an omelet for grandpa and him to split. We discuss what we want to do today. Paul wants to take grandpa to the cheap show and treat him to see RV with Robin Williams. I had seen an ad in the local papers that a place called Younkers had lighted palm trees 60% off. So we headed off to Younkers and the tree believe it or not was marked $160.00 What nutcase would pay that is beyond me. With our coupon of 15% off, the 60% off the advertised price and an additional 10% off for opening an account (which we will close right away anyways!), we got a deal. Paulie wasn’t happy that I bought it but how could I pass up another palm tree covered in lights? You cannot imagine the folks who come over to out rig to ask about them! I also got some palm tree string lights regular price $20 for $6. What a steal!



We got to the movie at the 1:30 matinee just in time. For the three of us it was $7.50. Can’t beat that. We didn’t have any popcorn as they boys were still full from their omelet. Judging by how grandpa was laughing out loud, I’d say he really enjoyed the movie. Of course, just looking at Robin Williams and the faces he comes up with make me laugh.

After the movie, we stopped at the grocery store. I wanted to use the strawberries, raspberries and black berries in a triple berry pie with a crunch crust. I am making up the recipe as I go along. We also needed some taco chips and I also bought some minestrone soup mix for a different kind of lunch next week. Sandwiches can get old and we don’t need to eat out that much, at least as much as we have been. It’s just too darn expensive. I was planning to make some fajitas with some skirt steak I had found at Sam’s for dinner. I had the onion and peppers, the sauce mix and the flour tortillas. Paul made the steak on the grill, just quickly seared. I had already cooked the onions and peppers and had the sauce all ready. I cut up the steak, and tossed that in with the veggies into the sauce. It sure tasted good, but the steak was so tough it was impossible to chew! Grandpa had to cut his up with a knife. I was quite disappointed. Skirt steak is the traditional meat true fajitas have in them and it has a wonderful flavor. Maybe they cook it a lot longer to tenderize it.

After dinner I made the triple berry pie and grandpa and I watched a movie.
Paul had gone to do laundry, but was back right away as the Laundromat was closed. Bummer.

Once again this evening we are having difficulties with the 12 volt lights and the refrigerator going off. Paul thought he and grandpa had figured it out but obviously that’s not the case. There must be something wrong in the wiring in this rig…I even found the owners tip sheet that said that if the rig was to be hooked up to shore power for more than a week, the battery turn off switch is to be in the off position. I am assuming that means OFF, right? I guess a trip to Grand Rapids to the dealer where we bought it sometime next week is in order.

Tomorrow is Sunday and I want to spend some time at the lake….on the beach in a chair. I have my sun screen and beach towel at the ready…not that I set foot in nasty lake water, even if it LOOKS clean, I only do cement ponds/lakes/pools and only if I can smell the chlorine and it looks to be sparklingly clean. OK, so I am weird. I like being weird. I don’t catch any crevice rot that way yanno? Paul found a raft trip down some river here. It’s a tube raft where you stick you ass in it and float…not a ten person raft like doing the rapids. It’s supposed to take two hours to float in your tube down the river. Ick. What about all the crap in that river and all that green slimy stuff near the edges? Ewww. Oh, no…not me. If they want to go, fine. Ick, ick, ick. Even with a wet suit, water type gloves, a bathing cap and swim shoes I would pass. Ick, ick, ick. Think of all the germs for goodness sakes not to mention fish and water creatures that poop in there. Ugh. ‘Nuff said.

Later,

Dee

PS…I just had a small sliver of my triple berry pie…heavenly. Now I hope I don’t go into a diabetic comma from that crunch topping. Even Paulie, who never says anything is good, said it was good ! I wrote down the date in my date book. This way I can refer back to it in the future. Of course, since I made up the recipe I’ll never be able to duplicate it. Darn, no state fair blue ribbon for me I guess, lol!