Utility Saturday

Rest in peace Ted Kennedy. That funeral and commentary has been on all day. Tonight we moved on to "Woodstock, now and then" It's great to watch that stuff again! I have spent the greater part of my day finishing all the bookwork and receipts for August. I'm pretty proud of myself to be finished! We had a good fish supper last night and today I got busy and made a turkey roast and all the fixins. They have a large front loader in the laundry room here, so I did all of our throw rugs today. I had a meeting this morning with the dog sitting service that will let KayCee out when we are gone all day. That's a pretty cool service. This lady has been here for 40 years and is licensed and bonded, comes with very good references and is rather expensive, so will be o.k. My neck is not getting any better. I may be looking for a chiro in the next few days. It's about painful enough to make me crazy! I don't like to take any drugs, not even Tylenol, and I have been taking that twice a day. We took a ride downtown to the post office this afternoon to mail some things since I missed the mail man here. There's lots of traffic today, you can tell it's the weekend. We will probably forgo any outings until Monday. Haven't heard much from the children. They must all be busy too. Hellanova had a show in Grand Island last night and tonight at Copperfields in Kearney, so I won't hear from that boy. We lost our neighbors to the North today, so we now have a clear view to the end of the camp. It's getting quieter and quieter. We were pulling out yesterday and DH spotted an animal running by the dumpster. Pulled up and I caught site of it and it went in and sat still in the weeds. It was either a Beaver or a Ground hog of some sort. It was about 4 p.m. so that may be why KayCee doesn't want to go over by the woods! Guess I'll spend the rest of this evening with the DH and the little dog. Need to put more ice on my neck and relax now!

Trojan Virus Ordeal!

I was getting ready to call it a night last night. We had gone out for supper and I checked my e mail when we got home. All of a sudden a bunch of pop ups started all over the place and an antivirus software came up as installed on my desktop. It scared the crap out of me and I immediately shut everything off, since it said it was a critical threat, and I invisioned a little worm sucking all my passwords out and ....all my account numbers and money out of my bank! I even had a bad dream about that!
Early this morning I called the guys who I usually go to thinking we could go through a removal on the phone...no deal. Found a reputable place and took the little PITA machine in for emergency care today. Poor lil sick thing! They were good and got me fixed right up. In that trip, I discovered yet another shopping center tucked away and hidden back in the hills. The Cinemas are also there, and the shows that I want to see are on there, so we'll be going back. I felt like my hands were tied this morning, as I couldn't finish any of my end of the month book work or check the weather, my e mail or a dang thing. Is that addicted? I do rely on this machine in most of the things I do in a day.
DH has lead butt and I couldn't even get him up to go to Wally World. I'm going there now to pick up a couple of things. Am bound set and determined to have grilled fish and vegetables for supper and I'm making it myself!

Pain in the Neck!

Yes...I have one! Guess it's showing me what happens when ya get a year older. Not fun, and we've had a busy day. Our park is right down the street from a place that rents and sells Segways. I've wanted to try one of those since they were invented, so today was the day.
We stopped there and for about a dollar a minute I took a 20 minute ride! It was weird at first, made my feet tired, and I had wobbly legs at the end, but at least I wasn't like one big guy who wrecked and fell on his butt in the middle of the track! I never fell off! From that ride we continued on downtown and had a Carriage ride around the downtown and down by the lake.
A good old retired Amish horse did the honors and it was a nice buggy. Lunch was at Dick Clark's Diner,it was good to see all the Platinum records and listen to all the oldies. In the basement of the Diner is a '57 Museum.
We didn't go through it, but a few were sitting outside.
This afternoon I needed a time out because my neck hurt and we were going to be gone this evening to a show. We went to "Spirit of the Dance" this evening and it was really good! Glass people are coming in the morning to fix the rock chip in the windshield of the Suburban that I got a while back so we will hang out here in the morning. If my neck doesn't get better, I may look for a masseuse!

A Very Good Birthday

We really had fun today! It is my Birthday and I got to do a lot of stuff. I feel really blessed to have received so many good wishes and have both of my boys fighting for position on my day! My youngest started it off by wishing my a Happy Birthday 5 days early on Facebook. So he was in 1st place. Then this morning, I had a card and present waiting for me when I woke up! Thanks DH. We went down to Branson Landing and walked all along the lake and strolled through the shops of the Landing before lunch. In the mood for comfort food, we had lunch at Bob Evans restaurant. Smaller version of Cracker Barrel.
I had Chicken Pot Pie and DH had Country Fried Steak. We walked out of there full as ticks! Came home to check on the Frau and we stopped at the office. DH was in on the next suprise. Out he walked with a huge bouquet of lilies, roses and carnations plus balloons! That being from son #1. He doesn't like to be one-uped by his brother, and he most definitely wins for the best suprise!
Love them both. I've heard from a lot of good friends and family today. We went browsing through a 5&dime store downtown...and I got more yarn, now I have enough for 2 projects. Stopped at an indoor course and played 36 holes of miniature golf. I didn't win, but then I don't play as much as DH! I can sit and look at my flowers tonight and spend some time with the frau. She was alone quite a bit today, and is giving us the sad eyes look. Tomorrow is a brand new day in a brand new year for me. I am now officially older than dirt!I got my first Senior Citizen discount today! Tomorrow I think I'll go try out a Segway and then we are going to have a horse drawn Carriage ride around downtown! More the old ones speed.

Branson Missouri

Hooray! We arrived about noon and got a real down home welcome! I can't get over how polite everyone is here, and how they all want to help you! Yes ma'am, no ma'am and I looked over my shoulder to see who he was talking to! Our site is on a slope and I would have had to use a step stool again, and one of the maintenance guys came rollin up with a J.D. bucket tractor hauling a wooden platform! Works perfectly. We got busy and got all set up. I'm really not a slave driver.
Got the sun screens on, DH put the awning out and when I backed the car in it almost works like a car port. We're pretty protected from the sun all day and no highway noise.
After 4 days right immediatly by the exit for the interstate, I will appreciate the quiet and dark. The welders are getting in trouble for the party they had last night. The park owner came and talked to us before we left this morning. He said there was broken glass all over and they were driving on the grass, plus all kinds a people there not checked in. I'm glad we're not going to be there tonight. DH is in his recliner outside with the dog, a cold beverage and his book. I'll have to motivate him after bit and we'll go for a ride.
Since it's my birthday tomorrow, I got to pick what show we're going to first. When we got settled, I went up and got tickets for "Spirit of the Dance" 8 pm on Wednesday. Think we'll go check out Branson Landing and maybe find out where to rent some Kayaks tomorrow! It's something I've really wanted to try, and I'll either love it or hate it...but at least I'll know one way or the other.

Do Nothing Day

I said this morning that I was not going to do a dang thing today! Yeah right! I worked on the outside and got all the streaks off the coach, did 3 loads of laundry, took the house frau in and out and about several times, built a charcoal fire and grilled a sirloin for supper. Finished up with the dishes now and watched the last Ice Road Truckers show of the season. Nooooowwwwwww is the Toyo Tires Drags Finals from Reading PA....there's some drama going on with my fav. team. Their girls funny car blew up yesterday and caught on fire so it's just pretty scary. She's still in first place and will go down the track in a spare car that has never raced. Just hope she stays safe. Everybody's fighting to get into the countdown to the end of the season so it's almost like a soap opera. This definitely will be a good night of racing. Have looked at some maps and googled some stuff at Branson. Am getting excited about going down there tomorrow. I think we will have a good time. The welding crew that are staying here in this park have decided that they would party it up tonight. I would think they would calm down since tomorrow is a work Monday...but they have partied every other night this week. Glad they will feel bad tomorrow and not me! Wish they would quiet down now though. I'm turning into an old crab! This old crab is sleeping in tomorrow, but to do that I will probably have to stay up really late! No pictures again tonight. We didn't go anywhere today!

Fun Day!

We ended up driving to Branson today. Wanted to check out the route to the Campground we are staying at. So glad we did...it's way too far south for what we want to do,too far to drive into Branson all the time, so we drove back into town and found another place. Drove around a little. That place has changed a bunch since we were there in 1995! We drove back north on 65 and there's a restaurant called Lambert's Cafe. It is very well known for their hot rolls that get thrown to you across the dining room and the fried okra that they serve on your napkin! It originated in 1942 and is a very down home, family oriented place. It has been on the travel channel on the "Best Places to Pig Out" shows, and I can see why. Tons of food, they had a Prime Rib special today and I'm glad I didn't order that! They say to order light, because of all the extras that they bring, and that's very true! Now ya gotta remember, we're experiencing lots of new things and goin' places we've never been before. I am still full tonight and we ate at 2 p.m.! I can't believe that place! It's definitely worth a stop. We continued on over to Bass Pro Shops, and that's somewhere we stopped in 1995 when it was brand new, and they are completely remodeling it now. Lots of people there today, didn't see anything I couldn't live without. Stopped at Wally when we got back to Marshfield, and that's where I spent a little money, the story of my life! Tomorrow I will get out and do a little work on the outside. Tonight it's just a little crisp out. I think there's almost a little fall in the air. When the sun goes down, it really cools off. It was an absolute beautiful day today!

The Sun Came Out Today

We had an uneventful ride down I44 this morning but no pictures from today. More today from the Arch and St. Louis.
It rained heavily in the night again last night, and I thanked my lucky stars we had a good rock base in that park. We found our way to this small little park right by the east bound exit of the Interstate and got set up. Decided to go check out the town. Got some recommendations on places to eat, and I came home and cooked! This is a bigger town than I thought. They have a nice new Wal Mart right down the road and I will check that out later if I need stuff before we head to Branson. Hair appt. in the morning and will go to Bass Pro Shops tomorrow and try not to buy out the store. We have an issue with the a window awning that will probably need to be checked out at a Camping World just down the road from here. Seems like there's always something. The Suburban played it's nasty little "No Start" business again this afternoon and I wasn't impressed. It started just fine when we unhooked it from the Tow Bar, so can't figure it out.
While I'm at the hair place, DH is taking it over to the Chev. dealership across the road.

Made it out of the City Alive!

All in one piece, no dents or scrapes! DH had his ride to the top of the Arch today. That is quite a complex!
We had to go through security like ya do at the airport. DH always sets the alarms off when he walks through, and today was no different, but I also set it off! I had some antibac. hand wipes in my pocket, and I guess the package had enough tinfoil in it to do it! I was shocked! I relenquished the camera and wandered around the old Mercantile shop and the Lewis and Clark Museum while DH took the ride. Overheard several talking while he was gone, about how small the carriers were and if you were claustraphobic,
(which he is) it isn't very much fun. I thought he might get nervous, but all and all was a nice trip, he got some good pics and we can cross it off the bucket list! We could have spent several more hours in the museum.
It had lots of displays, some were anamated interactive. The characters looked pretty life like when they talked to ya. Didn't make any of the stadiums or sports museums. Found a bistro downtown for lunch. Kitchen K's. The decor was rather contemporary, and the food was good. They had a set up for sidewalk dining, but with 75% humidity and 88 degrees, we decided to eat inside!
KayCee got a chance to mingle with the inner city dogs....she was really aprehensive to go in and when we got there to pick her up she shot out of there like a rocket! We have paid for these sins all night! We will move out in the morning.

Purina Farms and AKC Museum

The rain decided to give us a day of reprieve. It smells really damp out here, almost like mold. One more time, I didn't remind DH to put out the rain gauge, so have no idea how much we actually got. We started the day out driving over to Grey Summit on Hwy 100, which is one of the remaining pieces of Route 66. We stopped off at the Purina Farms for a visit.
They had a Dairy Cow exhibit and a milking demonstration going on right when we arrived. Not a very big crowd, but a lot of small children and they all got a turn with the farmer showing them how to milk! I even learned that most cows produce about 40 lbs of milk per day! Some even more getting milked up to 3 times per day, every 8 hours. Brown Swiss cows and Guernsey breeds have the highest percentage of butterfat in their milk. The barn had a nice display of farm animals, minature horses, regular horses, pigs, sheep, chickens and rabbits. We walked through the domestic pet house and saw all the excited dogs, getting ready to go out into the yard and show their stuff.
A beautiful blue merle Australian Shephard and a couple of Aussie cattle dogs that were really fast in fetching and catching frisbees. This farm was one of the original sites for Dog Diving competition and we watched them demonstrate this feat with several dogs.
It's lots more fun watching it in person. From there, we continued on east and north to the AKC Dog Museum. We got to take KayCee in with us, and because of that, we spent quite a lot more time. Lucky for us, they have free admission on Tuesdays, so that was a bonus! They have an excellent display of paintings, trophys and memoribilia of many AKC Breeds.
Everybody really enjoyed meeting the house frau, and were suprised how well behaved that she is.
Onward from there, we headed east and south over to Grant's Farm, once occupied by Ulysses S. Grant, and the 260 acres is the ancestral home of the Busch family. The park closes at 3:30 in the afternoon, and it was nearly that time when we got there, so we didn't stop but drove around the perimeter and through the neighborhood surrounding the park. It was in this neighborhood that I lived as a very small child. My dad worked for August Busch II and I used to call him "Uncle Augie" I even have a porcelain doll that "Uncle Augie" gave me. I narrowed it down to the area, but didn't find the exact house or property. I'm sure it is totally different from 50 years ago, but I know I found the right neighborhood, complete with the pasture and stables for the Clydesdales. We drove once again on a piece of Route 66 on the way home, passing some old highway motels that have seen their better days, but still standing. Tomorrow we will head into the heart of the city to visit the Arch and some Sports Museums down by the river. They have a doggie day care facility that I found out about today, so KayCee will get to hang out there for a while. All this fun really can tire a person out!

Rain Rain Rain

There's chances of rain all week and so far that's all it's done today! I got chores done this morning, but not before a hitch in the plan. Had everything loaded to go to the laundry room and the Sub wouldn't start! Deader than a doornail! I don't know what's up with that, but DH found someone to give us a jump and it seems better now. We finally headed off into Eureka to find some lunch. Tried some award winning Smokin Joes BBQ.. hit an auto parts and bought a new battery charger. Had talked to youngest son today and he's had a revelation about the 40 year anniversary of Woodstock. He finally gets it! Hooray!! He's threatening to go get all my old albums and my turntable. So I bought him a bunch of Janis Joplin, Deep Purple and CCR 40th anniversary CDs. He finally admitted that no one plays music that good anymore! I've been trying to tell him that for a long time. As I posted on Facebook. Reflecting back 40 years and remembering where we were 40 years ago Sat. Night. I remember although I wasn't at Woodstock, I know where I was! At a radio station in Denver Colorado being a Woodstock wanna be! Anyway, it's great to hear some of these young musicians finally pay homage to the old ones and truly appreciate their art. The days of black lipstick and head bangin are numbered! Finally.

Villa Ridge

Made our trek over here to Villa Ridge today. Not without our usual event! Started the day with trying to make a u turn off of the service road and ran out of room, cross a two lane busy highway! Not easy to back up with a toad on the back,this thing doesn't bend in the middle, and I had my heart in my throat for a bit! Backed up and changed direction and found a turn out down the highway a bit. All was good. It showered off and on all the way in to St. Louis. We finally got here this afternoon in time for a mini storm. I've been pouring over the literature that I have for this area, trying to decide how long to stay here, and then the next stop will be around Springfield and on down to Branson. The first of the day tomorrow I will do some laundry and then we will head off in the afternoon to look at some local things. Tuesday we will go into the city and that will be a long day. Some of you that know me, recall that early on in my life, I was 3, I lived around St. Louis with my parents, as my dad worked for August Busch II. I can remember attending BBQs at the Busch Mansion and spending time in the warehouse with "Uncle Augie" and my folks. My dads brother,uncle Bill also worked there. I am going to go visit the mansion and see if I can find where we used to live! Since my folks are gone, I have no one to help me out with directions and such, but I have pictures of us at the mansion, and I know the name of our landlord where we lived, not far from the stables and pastures for the Clydesdales. May be fruitless, but it may be a hoot too!DH wants to travel up in the Arch. We will search out some good BBQ too. It will be a busy week.

Injun Joe and Away we go!

Today was a hodgepodge of things. A semi leisurely morning, I got out while it was quiet and shined up some streaks and dusted off the front and rear of the coach.I won't miss sitting here on the corner by the roads, all the traffic both vehicle and people on foot. KayCee and I went for a walk and observed how many weekend warriors there are here now. Everybody seems to be having fun.
After a sandwich for lunch, we left KayCee to watch the rig and headed in to town. DH has been wanting to see Harry Potter and I don't care for that, so we were going to go our seperate ways and see different shows. Not happenin'. Harry was gone, so we both went to "G Force" an animated show about a team of Guinea Pigs that was for kids, but had lots of adult humor. This movie was in 3D and that's the first time I've ever put on the glasses and sat through a whole show! It was awesome! I want to watch every action feature like that! After that I dropped DH off at a Barber Shop and I went for one last shopping trip. When I only have a few minutes, I power shop.....I'm pretty good at it! Pretty soon it will be my birthday and I have some things in mind! Came home and made a casserole for supper and downloaded the California Fishin Trip pics onto Picasa and my FaceBook so I could show Drag Race Girl and Captain Glenn!I can't believe this picture of Catalina Island was taken with a disposable camera.
Sometimes DH is one heck of a photographer, and this picture won the prize of being on my desktop now! That way I can see what I'm missing everyday!! LOL. Watched some Drag Racin' qualifying on TV and trying to start getting things organized for tomorrow.
We'll be heading down Hwy 61 until we catch up with I70 then east and south on 270 until we merge into I44 west. Our next stop is Villa Ridge Missouri. We've enjoyed this stop, and now I need to come up with an agenda for next week. The weather forcast calls for clouds, showers and thunderstorms. I hope we miss out on that.

Dog Day in Missouri

We had a good time on the River Cruise last night! I went off and forgot my camera..but we had a disposable in the car so got some pics anyway.
They took a professional one of us when we boarded and we bought it when we disembarked. The meal on the boat wasn't terrific, but we had a guy playing banjo, harmonica and singing, and the slow lazy ride up and down the river at dusk was very nice. Not too big of a crowd
so was relaxing out on deck after our meal. Today we started the day at Hannibal's new dog park.
KayCee had fun and got some exercise before we headed downtown to the boutique, where she got a bath, new harness, a shirt, boots and some treats! My dog's not spoiled! She really smells good tonight! Spent most of the day, driving around looking at the town, went over the bridge into Illinois on the other side of the river.
Checked out Lovers Leap where the car went over the edge
and they were some mighty lucky ladies! Drove up some really steep hills, but DH knew better than to torture me with a roller coaster descent!
We are going to get some cleaning and work done tomorrow, ready to move on south. Decided to go into town one more time to go to their new cinema tomorow. There's eight theatres, and DH wants to see Harry Potter...Not really my cup of tea, so I will go to a chick flick. The weekend warriors are here in droves tonight and we're right on the end of a road, so a lot of traffic. I haven't stuck my nose out tonight, but I imagine the air is full of campfire smoke. I made pasta for supper and it's finally time to call it a day. I think I can sleep now.

Mark Twain, Wild Trolley and Lovers Leap!

We're having a nice gentle rain shower this morning. According to the map, it's just here south of Hannibal, it's clear there so we will able to walk around this morning down town. It was a long day yesterday.
Starting the morning off, we took a wild ride on an open air trolley with a white haired granny that held a microphone in one hand and drove with the other! She took us on a 14 mile journey around and through the city of Hannibal. Some of the spots that we covered,we're going to return to in the car. At one point she took us up winding road into a neighborhood where the town's forefathers built their mansions.
This was at the crest of a really steep hill...and as the saying goes, what goes up -must come down!Complete with a screeching "Wheeeee!!!" At which point I thought I'd pass out! That's the closest I've been to a roller coaster in many many years. DH checked my pulse! In the riverside park, the roads are one lane paths, tons of trees, and to get up to the statue of Samuel Clemens, there's a 300 foot drop! I didn't look down, and she just kept on talkin. She took us to the Mark Twain Cave parking lot, and on the way back, we passed the entrance to "Look Out Point"
and she explained that way back, two young indians from different tribes, used to meet there and when they couldn't be together, because of their tribes, they jumped to their deaths. I decided we'd go up there after we toured the cave in the afternoon. While waiting for the Trolley, I found the Barks n Bites Boutique next door that has the coolest things for dogs!
They have a "do it yourself" dog wash, which we will be taking KayCee to tomorrow, and I have some presents picked out for her as well as some home baked treats. She will get a trip to that park by the river for some exercise. Do I feel guilty when we leave her by herself alot? Certainly! We made our way down to the riverboat landing and purchased tickets for the dinner cruise tonight. I'm excited about that. We came back here and grabbed a sandwich,then headed to The Mark Twain Cave. Before we took the guided hour and a half tour, we listened to a Sam Clemens story teller for about an hour. He was pretty funny.
The cave tour was interesting and a cool 52 degrees, when it was almost 90 outside. It was almost 6 p.m. when we finished, so decided to leave the "Lover's Leap" until today, however as we passed the entrance on the highway, there was a police car blocking the entrance, and several cars, including a TV Station rig across the road. We thought, "wow, what if someone Jumped or something?" The tour guide in the morning had pointed out the river side when we were in the park and it's really up a long ways! As we traveled back in town, there was another camera crew setting up a remote boom, so at that point I couldn't stand it, I pulled over and rolled the window down and asked them what happened. Come to find out, two older women in a car, went over the leap! The driver, hit the gas instead of the brake. She travelled up over a curb, quite a ways forward and through a chain link fence and rolled down part way! Luckily a tree stopped them and they were rescued. Not before the pictures made the news and internet! www.khqa.tv if ya want to see the story. We will go up there today, if allowed. They hauled the car back up with cables and a wrecker. That's a story the Hannibal Fire and Rescue won't forget for a while! We did some exploring down the road here at the campground, and Kaycee found a cage with a Peacock in it!
There is a wonderful wooded area back there for her to run around and explore!

Made it to Hannibal

Yesterday was a maintenance day, packing up and dumping tanks, checking tires and fluids and securing all to go down the road. Everything went good without a hitch. The campground here in Hannibal is old and kinda run down. The site is small and the place is loaded with trees. We did get the satellite to lock on, thankfully. The highway is real close and we hear all the cars, but we will be here until Sunday. Will try to find enough to do. Today we will ride the trolley downtown, get off and on at the different things we want to see. This afternoon we tour the Mark Twain cave. I have never read any of Mark Twain's books,(if I did I don't remember!) so I will indeed learn something today! Later!

Good Bye to Iowa

We are spending our last day in Iowa. DH had his last Chiro Appt. this morning and is a whole lot better than last week. He's had plenty of ice, rest, encouragement and assistance from some old naggy woman and that may have helped a little! After his appointment we stopped off at the very nice HyVee Grocery Store here and got a few things and topped off the gas tank of the Suburban since we had a discount from shopping. I splurged and bought a bouquet of Crazy Daisies for my new vase. They kinda brighten the place up a bit. Yesterday
I watched a weather front approach us on the computer all day and in the evening it finally arrived. It brought with it some gusty winds and quite a rainstorm again. We had pulled in the shades and awnings, and even pulled in the front slide before it got here. No sense in flirting with ripping and replaceing the fabric since it isn't even two seasons old! There were some pretty impressive clouds, so I tried to get a couple of pictures.
Reflecting back, our month in Iowa has been very relaxing and a little bit of a learning experience. We have been in every corner and traveled in a complete circle from bottom to top,and were impressed by the number of things to do and see in this state. We have also really liked the laid back atmosphere of the small towns, but yet a wonderful selection of goods and services. We haven't wanted for a thing! The people have been very friendly and helpful. Iowa will always bring fond memories, and I'm sure we will revisit some of these places again some day. But for now...onward to the big state of Missouri tomorrow. I have quite a few things planned for the next few days, but it will depend on the Mr. and how much he'll want to do. We won't get an early start in the morning, but I have reservations at a campground about 100 miles from here. As I sit here and look to the east, there's a balloon floating in the sky. it's gently hovering below the clouds, and it slips out of sight on its descent beyond the highway exit. Just one more memory to bank!

Burlington Iowa

Change is often a good thing! DH decided we could do some soft touring today and we rode 25 miles over to Burlington Iowa, on the Mississippi River. Notice we have traveled yet one more major river to the east! They have a very old street, named "Snake Alley" dubbed by Ripley's Believe it or Not to be the crookedest street in the world.
Now I have been to San Francisco and traveled down "Lombard Street" which is also aptly named. I guess these two places share the title! Now I can say I've seen them both. The neighborhood in which Snake Alley lies, is basically in a small valley in the middle of the town.
Much Old untouched Archetecture and lots of churches. This house is cobblestone. Some of the alleys right by there are original Cobblestone. Some are patterned red and colored brick. I can't imagine traveling up and down that small passageway every day for whatever reason, they would have had to tote things to get to the river or back. It was very very narrow and steep! The museum located right by the alley wasn't open, and I didn't think DH needed to walk much more than he did anyway. We were fortunate to be able to park directly across from thee.

We continued on down by the river and watched some boats being launched and trailered. Not much else to visit there, and I didn't want to bring on a relapse. A small amount of walking about is good. I went down Snake alley and back up. With this humidity today, I was about dripping when I got back to the top! On the way back we enjoyed the countryside. Not much different scenery. Lots of Corn around here. We also drove around here in Mount Pleasant so we could see a little bit of what this berg has to offer. Some decent shopping. Nice new Wally World and good sized Orscheln's. Don't see a whole lot more. They have a Juvenile Detention Center right west of here...complete with razor wire and a Juvenile Court building downtown. Must take care of a large part, or the whole state. Can't imagine this area to be a high crime spot, it's complete with a Wesleyan Bible College. I'm making another trip down the street to the HyVee Grocery, I think there's some ice cream in our future for tonight. Have a great weekend.

Mt. Pleasant or a Very Large Sauna!

Took a long walk early this morning here at the Crossroads Campground. The crew of welders that are camped here are off to work today again, even though it's Saturday, since they came home early yesterday because of the rain. It's already up to 85 degrees and when ya open the door the moist heat smacks ya right in the face! I'm going to take KayCee out in the little shade we have left and give her her daily brushing and then probably not stick my nose out the rest of the day, only to let her out! DH is up and walking this morning. It will just depend on how he feels if we go anywhere or not. For some reason, our coach dumped the air from the back airbags so we need to start her up and let it pump up and relevel today. I don't think this site is that unlevel! Hope that's not a sign of bigger issues. Today will be an inside kind of day.

Monsoon Season in Iowa!

Now to top it all off...it's raining buckets this morning, so on top of the injured half....we're house bound until it stops!
Lightning and Thunder and Rain oh my! My big excitement today will be to go to Orschelns (I found out they have one) and get dog food for the brat dog. Got a note that the resort where we stay in the winter is finishing up the new exercise room that they are building.
That will be nice when you can't get outside in the pool or the walking crew can't walk outside. It truly is monsoon season in the desert right now and they are getting lots of rain, even though it's getting up to 117 or so in the daytime. At least DH got up and took a walk outside before it started raining. He had breakfast and went back and laid down. I do think he's a little better, and walking a little straighter this morning. We can only hope that he continues to improve so that we can leave here on Tuesday! Keep your fingers crossed for me too! More crocheting, I keep saying that I will not go stir crazy! At some point today I'm going to build a charcoal fire in a grill outside and fix some buffalo steaks and burgers. At least that is a plan, and it surely can't rain all day and night!

Just hangin out!

Back to the Chiro this morning for the other half. The rest of the day he's been in bed with ice. I haven't felt at all good either. Weird head ache and blah....so the glamorous travel life has ground to a halt for now. I went to the office tonight and paid for a week. He prorated our rent which was nice of him, so I got a weekly rate. We will be here at least until next Tuesday. The Chiro wants to see DH for sure on Monday if not tomorrow too. All I've done today is nap on the couch with KayCee. It's a good thing we have 2 TVs! I wouldn't have felt like moving on today anyway. I called the campground we were headed to and pushed my reservation to next week. Hope I feel better tomorrow, if so I may go out and about and explore the area a bit. For now, it's back to the couch.

Here we go again!

You've heard about the best laid plans? Well the plan to go sightseeing in Burlington today got scrapped! The only sight seeing that got done was on the way to the Chiropractor's office. Yep.. DH bent over to put his shoes on this morning, and his back went out. I spent over an hour on the phone today trying to solve my e mail problem. I was so frustrated after that, I was ready to throw the phone. I think I have a solution though, for now at least. Now I just wait to see how the other half is tomorrow. He has another appt. at 9:30 in the morning. We are supposed to move on to Hannibal MO tomorrow, may not happen, we'll see. They say an RVer's plans are written in Jello...mine's written in fumes. I'll just get the crocheting out and play along.... Sorry to say, no pics today, I didn't even go to WalMart!

Mount Pleasant is nice tonight

No new pics today. Here's more from Saturday. My Son's Rock Racer has made several trips across the country. He built this from scratch. They sell for about $50,000.
They race them on the Dunes by Silver Lake Michigan. The other one is Miss KayCee having fun in the park while we were waiting for the Balloons to go up. Tonight finds us in Mount Pleasant Iowa. I can't tell you about the town, or anything past the campground, except we will be hearing trains tonight for the first time in a long while. I just noticed it tonight while we're sitting here. We're not very far off the highway, but I don't hear that noise. We had a very nice ride across country on Hwy 34 late this morning after going to breakfast at the Casino, and not even visiting the Gambling Part. We barely got out of there this time by the seat of our pants! It was not a giving place, all we did was donate. I'm still ahead, barely...but luck wasn't on my side this time. I'm ready to be away from casinos for a while. The smoke factor about did me in, I have had a nonstop headache for a week because of it. They have a reasonable nice RV Park, but they just don't have enough non smoking area! We will go to Burlington Iowa tomorrow and I should have some different things to talk about when we get back here. They had rain this morning before we hit the road and the highways were just wet enough to give us a good spray, so we spent the greater part of this evening washing the road dirt off the coach. We have several guys staying here that are working on a pipeline around here, and they were sitting outside having a beer watching us work, so we went over and visited with them until it got dark. I fixed Chicken Stir Fry for supper and tested out their showers here. Brand new and very nice. One of our neighbors lives outside of Lincoln Nebraska and two more from Oklahoma, so the conversation was interesting! Nice guys. This park kinda small but nice and only 2 years old. I'm still having problems with my regular E mail account. I receive E mail as usual, but cannot send with it. If this continues I'm going to set up another account using G Mail because it can be configured to allow me to run it through my Office '07 Outlook. This whole thing is a pain, I can't forward or reply. I can copy stuff into my Yahoo or Webmail and send. Just frustrating, and if they don't get it going soon, I'm gonna bite the bullet and make some major changes. I'm trying to be patient with all the finger pointing....it's tough. Til Tomorrow, it's nite nite time!