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Thursday, June 30, 2011

It’s HOT

We are in Mt Pleasant, IA at Crossroads RV Park, a nice little park and not crowded at all. Friends, Dave & Shari Frantz, are the camp host and it is the only full hook up park close to Burlington. We will be here until the 10th.

We left Centerville last Thursday after I made a HUGE mistake. I went to put fuel in the truck, back tank only, at a BP station. I mistakenly put gasoline in the tank to the tune of 19 gals. I switched tanks as soon as I discovered my mistake and after berating myself about it I figured I would wait until morning and see what could be done to correct it. Long story short we came to Mt. Pleasant and the Dodge dealer across the street from the campground took care of the truck. They siphoned the fuel, dropped the tank and cleaned it. I had them changed the fuel filters and then I put diesel back in the tank, 40 gals. Needless to say this was a very costly mistake and one I pray I do not repeat. Sarah wasn’t with me at the time I did this so maybe if she had been I wouldn’t have done it, I doubt that but I’ll never know. As I said it was a costly mistake on my part.

Then on the way over here I didn’t think the AC was working the way it should, so we will wait until we are closer to a Ford dealer and have them check it out. I also discovered a slow leak in the front fuel tank, the Dodge dealer checked and said that is what it was, so I will have to look into fixing or replacing the tank.

I have been looking for something to get the bugs off the front of the camper and I believe I found the product, in fact I took on the product to sell and be a dealer for it. It is called Dri Wash n Guard, http://www.dwginternational.com/WebSite/index.htm, if you want to purchase some go to this web site and put in my number, 288973, and give it a try. I used it on the front of the camper and the bugs came off better than anything I have tried before. Now when we get to Indiana all I have to do is wipe the bugs off with a wet cloth. It works great on windshields too. If anyone would like more information give me a call or email me, I will be happy to show you the product or answer any questions about it.

Yesterday afternoon I was in the camp office talking to Dave and Sarah comes in and says we don’t have any power. So we tried all sorts of things and finally called an electrician. It seemed my Inverter quit working or something went wrong with it. I don’t know anything about the inverter but I will learn. So I called Excel and the guy who installs them in the units wasn’t in so they suggested the electrician. He came out and like I said we made sure there was power coming into the coach, so I had him wire the breaker box, which had a wire coming out of the inverter to our 50 amp breaker, we pulled that wire and replaced it with the live wire coming from the shore power. It is very confusing and difficult to explain but suffice it to say we have power in the camper but the inverter is not in use. So today after talking with Excel, the inverter is still under warranty, I called Xantrex and got the phone number of their facility in Elkhart and I will call them to schedule a time to take the unit to them to check it out. I will then learn all I can about the unit.

Last night Larry & Kathy came out and we had a great meal, Dave cooked and we ate. Larry graciously loaned us his truck while we are here, we are very grateful for that gesture. This weekend we are going to Sarah’s cousin Betty’s 50th wedding anniversary party in Keokuk. We will also be making the rounds of the cemeteries and visiting friends and relatives.

We are going out tonight for Sarah’s birthday, it is today, with Dave & Shari.

I’ll let you all know about that at a later date.

Remember – Dreams Do Come True

Monday, June 20, 2011

Merriam, KS

We left Omaha last Wednesday for Merriam, KS via I29. The news was saying I29 could be closed at anytime, we decided on I29 and knew we may have to detour but decided to see what happened. When we got to Hamburg, IA the water on the west side of the road went as far as we could see.

DSCN2672Water every where.

DSCN2676This farm is now an island.

DSCN2687The new levee is built on the shoulder of the north bound lane of I29.

We found at a rest stop south of Hamburg I29 had been closed, we were very lucky to have gotten through.

Walnut Grove RV Park in Merriam, KS is not very big and the sites are very close together. I had been warned by our neighbors at Griff’s, Dick and Judy, so I called and visited with someone at the park. We reserved a double wide site and she assured me we could get into the site. A gentleman checked us in and took us to the site and helped me get the camper parked. It was a back in site and the nose of the camper was with in two feet of the street. Since it was a double wide site we were able to park next to the camper. The only problem with the site was no satellite accessibility due to a tree, so we only had the stations we could get on the TV antenna.

We had a great time visiting with Steve, Lynne, Zack, Allison and Nick.

DSCN2701

Steve took Thursday and Friday off because Allison and Lynne had girl scout camp and Steve picked up Zack and Nick from summer bible school, then Zack headed for basketball camp. Thursday we went to Peachwave ice cream store. It is a self serve ice cream store, you choose from about eight different flavors, you can mix the flavors, then you put whatever toppings on the ice cream and they you pay by the weight. Friday night we went to the Vacation Bible School picnic and watched the kids put on a program about what they learned the past week. Saturday night we went out to eat at a new place called “The Rub” it is a bar-b-que restaurant, www.therubbarbque.com. The food was very good, it is set up as fast, casual dining, you order and take it to your seat. The food was very good and the portions were generous. My only suggestion to the owners was another choice of sauce, they make their own, because the sauce on the table was a bit spicy. The ribs are served dry and you add sauce to taste.

Sunday night Steve, Lynne, Sarah and I went to see the Green Lantern at the AMC theaters, http://www.amctheatres.com/Studio/, I had never been to cinema suites theater before. The theater was different, http://www.amctheatres.com/dinein/cinemasuites/. It was a great evening except for one minor incident, the server spilled Sarah’s soda on her. Over all it was a fun evening and the food was good.

Back thirty or forty years ago a show called Dr. Who was on TV, I saw a couple of episodes then and thought what a stupid show. Steve is a huge fan of Dr. Who and I started watching episodes from the last five years and really enjoyed them, he loaned me his collection so I can watch them myself. I really did enjoy the episodes we watched.

We left Merriam today about 8:30, it seems we always leave about the same time, and headed for Honey Creek State Park at Lake Rathbun arriving here about 1:30.

More later.

Dreams Do Come True.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Omaha, NE

Our time here in Omaha is almost done. We have had a great time being with the kids. The little ones are growing up so fast. We have spent as much time as possible without making ourselves a nuisance. I bought an IPad and loaded the game Angry Birds on it, the girls are constantly wanting to play the game. It is fun to watch how they approach their turns. Isabel, the youngest of the two girls, is always trying to do the same as Emily. Sometimes she gets it right and does better than Emily. Eli is still to young to care about these types of games but I will bet money when he gets older he will give his sisters a run for the money.

Marie, the kids, Sarah and I met Daniel for lunch one day and then went shopping. Well, Sarah and Marie wanted to go shopping, I reluctantly tagged along. Sarah was looking for a pair of shoes, she didn’t find any, we were at Younkers. We ended upstairs in the kids and men’s departments. One of the girls needed to go to the bathroom so Sarah headed off in search for the facilities, I continued looking at t-shirts, tried on a couple, they fit so I thought about buying them until….I found the shirt. I liked the material and it fit, so I bought three of them. Sarah came back and Emily was saying she wanted a stuffed animal, a cat. I wonder why the stores put the restrooms in the kids area? It must be for the convenience of the mother’s shopping with kids. Anyway, Marie joined us, she had been looking for something else, and she put the end to the cat wanting and directed Isabel and Emily to clothes. In the end after some cajoling Marie was able to get Emily to decide on a dress. So with all the decisions made I went to the counter and waited my turn to pay for the items. The clerk was anxious to point out all the money I saved because of the sales going on. That brought to mind what one of my bosses use to say about saving money on purchases, “even though you saved a hundred dollars on a two hundred dollar item, you STILL spent a hundred dollars”. This shopping spree took place on Friday the 3rd, fast forward to yesterday and we were at the kids house when Emily said she still wanted the cat. Now I don’t know about you but I sometimes have a difficult time remembering what I wanted to do after getting off my chair and here Emily is remembering what she wanted from over a week ago.

Now to really put the icing on the cake, so to speak, Marie wanted to return an item she bought at the mall, so her and Daniel took off while the grandparents baby sat the kids. When they returned they had bought Emily her cat and bought a dog for Isabel. Emily say the dog and wanted the dog so she traded with Isabel and all were happy. Go figure the mind of a women regardless of the age.

Sarah has me drinking this Vitarain from Costco, it is a way to get the public to pay more for water. It doesn’t taste to bad so we bought some, it costs about the same as soda, which I drink to much of so if I can drink more of this Vitarain it should be healthier for me. We’ll see how it goes.

Yesterday was Marie’s birthday, we went out to eat at Firebirds. I called for reservations for 10 people, I thought there would be a lot of people there but the place was not busy at all. The food was very good, the service was slow, especially when we were done eating and wanted our check. We have eaten at this restaurant several times and I do recommend it, this was the first time it was so slow. I believe the slowness was due to having two servers waiting on us and each thought the other was taking care of items.

Today is laundry day in preparation for our move Wednesday to Merriam, KS, I am apprehensive about this campground because it is in town and a friend of ours said he had somewhat of a difficult time getting into his site there. I called the campground and they assured me I would be able to get in, they have reserved me what they call a double wide spot, so we will see when we get there. I want to stay at this campground because of the proximity to Steven’s, nephew, house.

Well that is enough for today, I’ll show a couple of pictures of the kids.

DSCN2634Eli, being able to grab his feet, something I haven’t been able to do for years.

DSCN2627The girls on the miniature golf course.

DSCN2628I am not sure how well they did but they had fun.DSCN2629DSCN2630

Time seems to go by so fast now, but I am enjoying every minute of it.

Dreams Do Come True