Hitch Itch

Now I understand what the term Hitch Itch really means, we are getting anxious to move to our next destination.

Last Saturday, 9/25, it rained all day and we didn't venture out except to go to church in the evening. The nice thing about a rainy day once in a while is you have the opportunity to get done whatever you have been putting off for so long.

Sunday, I made a meat loaf and put it in the crock pot for a couple of hours, it was delicious, I made enough to last all this week. Late afternoon Tiffany, Matt, Bryan and Alexa came by. It seems Alexa's school has the kids selling dough to make rolls. It won't be delivered until late in October so I asked Alexa what she liked and bought that and told her to keep it. It was good to see them, it will be March or April before we see them again.

Monday I began walking again, I have to lose some weight. Four laps around the perimeter of the campground equals three miles, so that is what I try to get in each day. So far so good.
Did some laundry and vegged out the rest of the day.

Tuesday we took the truck to Ankeny Auto Spa and had it washed, waxed and detailed, they did an good job on it. I wish I could find someone to wax the camper but I believe I will wait until we get to FL. Of course Tuesday night a new NCIS was on, in my opinion it is one of the best shows on TV.

Wednesday we finally made it to the DMV to get the address changed on our driver's license. We should have done it before now but I kept putting it off and we needed to get it done. The DMV is an interesting place to go, it is a great place to study human kind. I am always amazed at the different characters you see there. The amazing choices of dress people choose to wear out in public, there is an email running around on the internet showing the various choices of dress people choose to wear to Wal Mart. It isn't that bad but still fun to observe. We went early in the morning, there were three agents working and about fifteen customers to be helped, we were still there almost an hour. Then off to Wal Mart, Sarah has the idea she wants to make a tie blanket, it seems you buy material to make blankets and cut strips about four inches long around the perimeter of two pieces of material and tie the strips together forming a blanket. I guess they will hold together. In the evening we met Orren and Norma for dinner at Prarie Meadows Racetrack and Casino. We got there before they did so I went off to try my luck. I found a penny machine and inserted a twenty and began playing. It seems to make any money on the penny machines you have to play the max which actual cost fifty cents not a penny. I played four times at max play and I got some type of bonus thing, I didn't have a clue what to do next. I was pushing buttons and looking around when one of the employees must have seen my confusion and took pity on me. He helped me with what to do and I ended up winning twenty-five dollars. I played a couple more times and won another four dollars, I cashed it in because I knew if I kept playing I would lose it all. So our dinner didn't cost me anything. Wednesday is prime rib night at the casino and it was good. It is a buffet type setting and there is plenty to eat. We were there three hours and had a very enjoyable time. We always have a good time with Orren and Norma.

Today I wanted to go to the Iowa Military Museum, I have seen the signs for it for a long time and decided to go. So Sarah and I took off early this morning, didn't have any problem finding Camp Dodge but the museum isn't the easiest building to find. They are a work in progress but they had a lot of items already on display. Outside they have a series of tanks ranging from very old to fairly recent and what I believe is a F100 Super Sabre jet plane. Inside the exhibits are still being built on a lot of the displays but it is still worth a visit. There is one room that has a large exhibit of military rifles and pistols. There was one exhibit where someone donated there medals and I thought my brother Larry should donate his dress uniform with all his medals and ribbons it would be an impressive display.

Then we stopped at Starbucks so Sarah could use the gift card Mason and Madyson gave her for Mother's Day. Sarah got her coffee and also bought a batch of coffee to make at home. That will keep her wired when she drinks it.

We came home and I worked on some things on the computer. I found a disk that had some old files for the Family Tree Genealogy program we have. I tried to merge a couple families and it confuse things so I wanted to find the files for before I merged them. I lucked out and found some files I had saved on a disk in 2005, these turned out to be what I was looking for, now I will work to update all those files.

We have an appointment at Bob & Jo's, where we bought the camper, for them to look at the furnace, as you know it isn't working. I did work Monday night but not since, so I sent an email wanting to know how soon we could get in to get it looked at, they set an appointment for 9 am on Oct 8th. We will begin our prep work the day or two before and leave here by 7:30 am on the 8th. Once the furnace is fixed we will continue to West Omaha KOA in Gretna, NE. We will be there a bit over a month, with a week in WI without the camper.

So until next time, Dreams Do Come True.

Happy Birthday to Eli Daniel Hoenig

We got up Friday morning with the temperature outside at 50 degrees so I turned on the heat pump, nothing, I tried the furnace and it came on for a few seconds but then shut itself off. I tried the heat pump and it did the same thing. So I waited a bit and tried them both again and the same thing happened. It warmed up during the day and I was ok. I emailed the service center at the factory and thought I’d wait to hear from them, we have a small electric heater I got out and it warmed the place up so we weren’t cold anymore, but Saturday morning the same thing so I called the dealer. They told me to check the wiring and make sure there were no loose wires. Since it was raining I told them I would wait until it quit raining. It rained all day Saturday so the day was a bust as far as pulling a bunch of items out of the basement and then crawling in there to see if the furnace had any loose wires.


Sunday, it was raining so no checking for loose wires. I went and put gas in the car and got my free paper, I haven’t paid for a paper in a long time. At the Kum & Go gas stations here you get a free paper with a fill up.

Sarah’s brother Bill and wife Mable were going to be in Ottumwa and so we decided to drive down to see them, Cynthia went along with us. Ottumwa is a little over an hour away but it was rainy and foggy the whole trip which was fine because there isn’t anything to see between here and there. We had a good visit with them and topped it off with going to Hy-Vee and had desert. Well, I bought three egg rolls; I was hungry, and a piece of chocolate cream pie. It was all good and along with the good company, life is good.

Still not call from Omaha, so I guess we will stay put until the call comes. We are not moving the camper but I do not want to go over to soon either because Sarah needs to be careful how much she is on her foot and I am afraid she would not watch that if we go over there to soon.

Today, Monday, I got up at seven and did my three laps around the park, took a shower and had breakfast. Then I decided to look at the furnace and see if there were any loose wires, there were not any. Our neighbor Dick came over and he looked at the setup for the thermostats and we decided to turn the air conditioner on and try to get it below 70 in the camper and then see if the furnace would come on.

Tuesday, we finally got the call Marie was going to go to the hospital and our grandson will be born soon. We left Des Moines about 10 am and arrived in Omaha a bit after noon. I went to Sonic and got lunch for everyone, it was good.

Eli Daniel Hoenig was born at 5:14 pm, weighing 8 lbs 14 ozs, 20 inches, black hair, blue eyes.

Eli and his sisters Emily and Isabel. I don't think Eli will lack for attention.

Grandma and her helpers.

Grandpa couldn't get any help.

Both mom and baby are doing great. Congratulations to Marie and Daniel, you have a handsome baby and he is cute as a bug's ear.

Thursday, the baby and mom came home today. Sarah and I went to see Marie's grandmother Jewel today, she is in an assisted living facility recuperating from back surgery. It was good to see her and she really looked good for having had back surgery within the last week.

We head back to Des Moines tomorrow, we still have a problem with the furnace I want to get back to getting a solution to the problem. Either way we will probably be in Omaha before Oct 15th.

Dreams Do Come True

Sarah is getting better

This has been a beautiful day I slept until eight, I have decided I shouldn’t be sleeping this long but I don’t know if I want to get up earlier. I might try getting up at 6:30 but then I might not either.

Monday we took the camper over to Bob & Jo’s the dealer we bought the camper from to have them take out the washer and dryer that wasn’t working and put in the new Whirlpool wash and dryers the factory sent to replace the old ones. The technicians that did the replacement were very good, they did it within the time they said they would and even fixed another small problem we had in the unit. The biggest problem they ran into was the old washer vent was at the top of the dryer and the new dryer has the vent at the bottom so they had to cut a hole in the side of the unit. The good news of this is the factory will patch the old hole with fiber glass when we visit them. We ran the washer and dryer today and what a difference they are from the old ones.  So much quieter you don’t even know they are working. It is nice to have the ability to wash in the unit. Friends Russ and Candi called and wanted to go out to eat at Smokey D’s BBQ, we did and it is a great place to eat. When In Des Moines stop and eat at http://www.smokeydsbbq.com/.

Tuesday, Sarah had two doctor appointments the first was at the orthopedic surgeons, he said she could get rid of the crutches and go to a cane, he said the fracture doesn’t show any clear bone growth but he is not seeing anything that isn’t good news so Sarah has an appointment on October 5^th. Next we went to the worker comp doctor and he gave Sarah the same instructions, get rid of the crutches and go with a cane. So we went and bought one and Sarah seems to like it much better than the crutches. We received a call from long time friends Orren and Norma; they wanted to go out to eat, so we did. We went to Fuddruckers, we split the Nacho’s and some onion rings this turned out to be way too much to eat but I did make a good dent in it.

Today was laundry day. We are still waiting for the call from Omaha saying get over her the baby is on the way. So I took the towels and clothes over to the laundry and Sarah did the whites with our new washer, but we got it done. I wanted to have it done so when the call comes we can have clean clothes.  This afternoon we sat outside with the neighbors and visited, it was great.

This past weekend the local Lion's Club held a cow pasture golf day.

A week ago I saw the owner on a tractor mowing the pasture for the golf outing. They cut holes for each of the eighteen flags to go in and then on last Friday there was an army of guys with riding lawnmowers cutting out the fairways and greens. Here are a couple pictures:

I hope they had other facilities on the course than this one, a person would lose all sense of modesty with this one wouldn't they.

This last picture shows the 13th hole and behind it to the right of the road is a pond that tells me if you over shoot the hole and the ball lands in the water you better not go get it.

Now some pictures of the campground starting with our camper and truck:

We are having a great time in them and look forward to many years of such.

More pictures of the campground;

This is the front of the newer clubhouse, on the right is the laundry area, the middle door is the game room and  the way to the showers and the door on the left is the club room.

The back of the clubhouse.

then we have the moose and the bear.

I like this picture, but it was difficult to get the eagle to sit still to take this picture.

Anyway this is a beautiful campground and I would recommend it to anyone needing a place to stay in the Des Moines area.

Well that is it for today remember Dream Do Come True.

Nice Couple of Days

Here I am sitting here thinking, I should update the blog, but I have it in my mind I need to do it either first thing in the morning or late at night, that’s crazy I say I can write this anytime of the day I want because I am RETIRED with nothing to do and ALL day to do it.


Tuesday the 7th I had an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon and got some good news, he said what I have is bursitis and should be able to be treated with physical and exercises, YAHOO, that is what I wanted to hear. While I was at the doctor Sarah had her hair cut shorter, she looks good with it shorter. We went by Cynthia’s to get some mail she had for us, we have her address on our health insurance policies, one of her neighbors asked if Cynthia was ok and I said yes she gets some of our mail for us. He asked if, get this, I was her father, I said no her brother-in-law. I guess I look older than I think. We needed quarters for laundry so we went to the bank I got a couple of roles of them. Then our treat for the day was a stop at DQ for a treat. With that we headed home, stopped by the office to see if we had any mail, we had none. It was a perfect day.

Wednesday the 8th, I had to go to physical therapy for my shoulder and it turns out my last one also. He concurred with the doctor saying I needed to do the exercises and that should make the bursitis dissipate and the pain will cease. So I know what I have to do to get rid of the pain, I just have to do it. The rest of the day consisted on me waiting on Sarah hand and foot, she is very demanding but it is a pleasure to be able to do everything for her and the camper. It is a role I cherish and would do forever if need be. Oh Lord, where did all that come from? (Right now she is sleeping so she can’t hear what I am typing).

I put the awning out and we sat outside for several hours and read, it was great. Oh, I almost forgot, I also did the laundry, folded and put away all of it. What a guy!

I have to get started on learning how to do websites etc. Daniel sent me a couple of places to get some free training; I just have to get doing it. I might be able to find some work in different places, never know.

I am trying to change my mailing address at the VA and it takes an act of congress to get them to call you back. I have waited two days before on different reason and ended up having to call them back. It shouldn’t be that difficult to call people back unless they are understaffed as many businesses are today. I would love to do something like that on the road, be a call center person who takes the easy calls like address change etc. I wonder how you get something like that.

I have the fixins for vegetable soup in the Crockpot, ok it was suppose to be beef vegetable but I forgot to buy the beef and I am not making a trip to the store just so we can have meat in the soup. I believe it will be just fine, I hope. Update, Sarah woke up and was wondering why she didn't smell the soup, I forgat to plug in the Crockpot, so either we will eat late or have soup tomorrow. Maybe I need a nap.

It has been cloudy all day today; tomorrow they say we may get rain so I will take this any day.

Nothing much else going on so I will just say Dreams Do Come True.

Windy

This past week has been interesting from a couple of angles. It was our first full week in the retirement mode. I expected to get somewhat bored and was hoping I would find plenty to do. I was never bored and always had something to do. I read a good book by one of my favorite authors, Clive Cussler, The Chase, is a good book that takes a couple of twists and turns in it but a good story never the less. Two other books I have read the last couple of weeks are by Lisa Scottoline Silent Killers and Daddy’s Girl, both had an ending I did not expect or see coming. I am currently reading a John Jakes book, Charleston, so far it is pretty good. His books usually following a family over a hundred or so years with accurate historical facts for the most part, I enjoy them but sometimes they get to be a bit long. I am reading both off my Nook and some real books I kept because I couldn’t get rid of them.

We have had some very windy days and nights this past week. I don’t mind the weather but Sarah does have difficulty getting around very fast because of the crutches. One night we had severe weather around us but it never materialized here, except for wind. We had gusts of up to 45mph and it did rock the camper a bit. We slept ok, but when the wind begins to blow it is a different feeling.

Thursday I did the laundry; it was nice not having a lot of clothes. I am wearing t-shirts and shorts only, I did wear a pair of long pants to church but otherwise it is shorts. It took a little over an hour to get everything done and then Sarah helped fold it and I put it all away. I will be nice to have the washer in the camper fixed. We are taking the camper over to the dealer at Guthrie Center on the 13^th for them to put the washer in the camper. The rest of the things to fix, minor ones, hopefully we can get into the factory before we head south.

Friday was a day of doing nothing, John located across the street from us, made me a sign with our name on it. It is nice, we attached it to the flag stand, it was on the hitch but the wind was strong today and blew it off. If I run across a better type holder I may get it but this will work for now.

Saturday I ran the vacuum cleaner, it is a built in and does a decent job.  I walked in the morning and again in the afternoon, went to church and came home and vegged out.

Today, Sunday, I walked after I got up then we had breakfast. The freezer needed defrosting so I did that, it took maybe a half hour, and then it was off to the grocery store. I did pretty good I got everything on the list plus a couple extra items, at least I thought I did good until I got home and realized I did not get any type of meat. I guess we will be vegetarians the most part of the week. I doubt that will hurt us any. I did remember the cookies though.

It is interesting how when I was working I woke up either at five or five-thirty without an alarm, now I sleep until seven-thirty with no problem.  I should get up earlier and walk and do reading etc. but I haven’t, at least not this past week, maybe now that we are in our second week of retirement maybe I need to be getting up earlier.  On second thought scratch that last sentence I may just keep sleeping in.

Not to exciting of a week but we enjoyed it.

Dreams Do Come True.