Bennington, NE

Sarah and I are no longer classified as full-timers. We closed on our house a week ago last Monday. We unloaded the camper in about four hours; it amazes me how much you can get in a fifth wheel. Of course, like all other full-timers most everything we owned was in our camper. We are keeping the camper and truck to go south this winter. We have begun another chapter in our lives.

We have been living in the house since then as I put the camper and truck into storage. Sarah left me in charge of getting everything out of the camper, I knew I was going to leave items in the basement but I forgot a drawer in the bedroom and all the items underneath the bed. Therefore, we will have to make a trip out there to get those things, maybe. As you could guess we have no furniture for the house we let go of everything we had we when we moved into the camper four years ago. We do have a nice airbed, which we put into service, it isn't too bad but the camper bed was better. So yesterday we went to Nebraska Furniture Mart, this is a huge facility and they have anything and everything for the house. It is comparable to American Warehouse in AZ. We bought furniture for two bedrooms, living room, dining room table and chairs and bar stools. I told Sarah she had a five hundred dollar budget, I bought a wine holder/rack that cost ten dollars, this was the cheapest item we bought. I had no idea furniture was so expensive, but sure do now. We are supposed to get most of our items next Tuesday; the few remaining had to be ordered so they will take a bit longer. It will be nice to have furniture even though I have a nice outdoor chair I am sitting in to read or watch TV.

Last weekend we were in WI for our granddaughter's grandparent's day at school, Madyson is in kindergarten. We had a great time with the kids and even got to watch a baseball game, although it was cold and windy and on Saturday, we saw a soccer game and flag football game. We came home on Sunday with a stop at Carl & Merilee's for lunch and Cynthia's to pick some items she had of ours.

I ordered a TV from Woot.com, it is a refurbished Samsun, it came yesterday so Daniel, Marie and the kids came over and Daniel hooked up the TV and all that went with it. Great picture, now I need a sound system.

Last weekend in WI, we stayed at a Roadway Inn, not very expensive but the room was very clean and the bathroom and shower were spotless. The only difficulty we had was Friday night there were a couple of power outages and my CPAP stopped working. Now those of you who use a CPAP know that if the power goes off, you aren't able to breath, so you are jolted awake. Since it was getting close to getting up I didn't start it up again until Saturday night and it wouldn't work. I cannot sleep without the CPAP so I didn't get much sleep; I even let Sarah do some of the driving coming home on Sunday. I was able to get the CPAP problem solved today at the Omaha VA.

Until Later - Dreams Do Come True

KOA, Gretna, NE

I don't know when the heat is going to come back on but it was chilly this morning when we left Des Moines and there was a white substance on the ground. Someone said it was snow but it is April, it doesn't snow in April, does it?

We had a safe and uneventful trip to Omaha, now we begin the fun of moving into our townhouse. This doesn't mean we aren't going to camp or go south in the winter but it does mean a change in our lifestyle, such as it is.

So here we are, if you are in the Omaha area call we would love to see you.

Later - Dreams have come true.

Griff’s RV Park, Altoona, IA

We have been here a week and have been able to see many of the folks we wanted to see. We had dinner with Cynthia and we are going to see her again today. Last night we met Mike and Sheri for pizza, Mike may show me how to pick out shoes for resale, although I don’t believe I have the eye he has for it.

We met Laurie and Marci for lunch on Monday and enjoyed every minute of our time together, two of my favorite people when I was at Marsh.

Tuesday we met Tiffany, Matt and Alexa for lunch. Alexa had a doctor’s appt and is 5’2” and I don’t remember the rest, just that she is almost as tall as Sarah.

Wednesday Sarah began her two days of appts with the doctors to find out how she is combating any cancer cells which may have escaped the chemo and radiation. Well the chemo and radiation must have taken care of the cells because as of now she received good reports for the doctors, labs and mammogram were all negative for cancer signs.

We will be heading west on Monday and will be staying at the KOA in Gretna until we can unload the camper and move into the house.

Until then, Dreams Do Come True

PS: As usual I didn't have Sarah proof read my blog. I forgot to mention two couple we have seen this week. Norma & Orren, I forgot to mention we had an enjoyable dinner with them last Monday. Another couple is Carl & Merilee, we saw them last Saturday on our way back from Burlington. I am trying to talk Carl in going south with us this winter, not doing a very good job so far. Also, I want to thank Larry & Kathy for their hospitality and for driving the car back from AZ. When we were in Burlington we got to visit with my aunts, Millie & Marcella, always good to see them. Also, I can't forget, even though I did, Mark & Sharon, we were able to visit with them for just a little while but we will be back in Burlington this summer and spend more time with them. Mark and I lived next door to each other when we were growing up so he is more like family than just a good friend. So I apologize for missing these folks in my blog and for anyone else I have missed. I guess my mind isn't what it use to be or maybe it is and I am still in too big of a hurry to finish projects.

Griff’s RV Park, Altoona, IA

We had an uneventful trip back to Iowa, we even had two days with 30mph tail winds and the truck got 9.9mph and 11.2mph, never have I had that kind of mph pulling the camper.

We arrived Friday, late afternoon, Larry & Kathy picked us up and we went to Burlington, IA for the night and to retrieve our car, they had driven it back for us, thank you for everything. It was nice having Sarah with me in the truck, so I suppose we will leave the car home in the future.

This week we have doctor appts and many friends and family members to visit. Next Monday we travel to Omaha and close on our townhouse. We then begin a new chapter in our lives, not full timers anymore but we will continue to go south in the winter for as long as we can make the trip.

I have to leave for a dentist appt so that’s all for now.

Guymon, OK

We are on our way back to the frozen north. We left AZ last Monday and are taking our time to get to Des Moines.

A recap of our AZ stay. On the way to Mesa, we went to Kansas City and saw Vince, Lindsay and Sophie, we also saw Steve, Lynne, Zack, Allison and Nick, then we headed for the Excel service center to get a couple things looked at and to have them check the caulking on the roof, I don’t do that. On the way the truck decided it wanted two new injectors, which necessitated a stop in Salina, KS. While the truck was being fixed we went to the Eisenhower Library/Museum. Sarah fell there and broke her glasses, we scrambled to get her a temporary pair to get us to AZ. After we were in AZ for a month or so Sarah fell over a cart and hurt her knee, workers comp claim. Then I had a pain in my abdomen the VA diagnosed as a hernia, I was off work two weeks until another doctor said no hernia. I went back to work for a couple more weeks and then a trellis fell on my right hand injuring my middle finger, workers comp, off a week or so until I told the physical therapist I wanted to go back to work. Cynthia came down and stayed with us for a few days and my brother Larry and wife, Kathy, did the same last week and then they took the car and are driving it home for us. Needless to say we had an adventurous time.

Now for a bit more detail.

Went we to visit arcosanti site by Mayer, AZ, http://arcosanti.org/. It was a project envisioned by Paolo Soleri an Italian architect. It was an interesting visit, the website will give a lot more detail. I don’t believe it will get any bigger than it already is.

Larry & Kathy came to town and we drove up to Tortilla Flats, AZ, http://tortillaflataz.com/, it is nothing but a tourist trap but the drive to it is very nice.

We also drove to the top of South Mountain, which is behind Colleen & Darrius’ house. We could see their house with binoculars so we called them and Colleen couldn’t see us. We could see quite a distance from the top of the mountain and the drive up had some nice viewing sites, http://ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/somo/main.php.

Larry & Kathy left with the car last Sunday, Sarah & I weren’t going to leave until Tuesday but we got the camper ready on Sunday and we left Monday.

We have had a tail wind since we left Deming, NM and we are getting great mileage, 9.9 mpg yesterday and 11 mpg today. We’ll see what happens the rest of the trip.

We will spend tomorrow night in Salina, KS and arrive at Griff’s in Altoona on Friday. I know it is suppose to be cold but it will start getting warmer. I haven’t missed the wind but it is nice to see grass again.

Later – Dreams Do Come True