Happy Halloween

Wow, it’s amazing this is the last day of Oct. Where has the time gone this summer?

We went to church and after church we went to lunch with new friends and church members. We went to a Southern Buffet and man o man .. it was so good. I thought Woody’s had the best fried chicken .. wrong this place does. The food was excellent and i look forward to enjoy more meals there.

After church we came home and it’s such a beautiful day outside. The weather is perfect. This is the view out my front door .. yes the dogs are excited to have a big yard to run in.

These 2 pictures are out of the big and small window sitting at my table. I love the view as i’m not to hip on seeing RV’s out my window.

The view out the back side of our camper is a building and RV.

Hubby changed clothes and went to work on leveling up our rig as this morning i had problems with bouncing from wall to wall. The rig settled a bit on the loose soil and so he went to work to level us up. He did a wonderful job and now i won’t be bouncing off the walls. We went to evening services and once again the service was good. The song service is wonderful, the pastor so far seems to be what we like. The people appear to be very friendly.

After church we came home and spent the evening relaxing.

Mississippi here we come

Last night was our first time staying over night while traveling on the road since we got our new home. It’s different then it was in the motor home. With our motor home we had access to everything. Well in our new home, we don’t. When the slides are in you can not access anything in the kitchen/living room. No big deal since i don’t do much cooking and esp when were on the road.

We do have access to the bedroom and bathroom, very important. With our new home we have to lift the generator in and out, in our motor home we didn’t have to do that. What we did was put it under the 5th wheel between the truck and camper and we ran a ext cord through the bedroom slide out to plug in the TV, alarm clock and my computer of course. those are must have things. One good thing we like about truck stops is the truckers don't mind our generator noise as their running their trucks, plus the noise is an added bonus as when it’s quiet we don’t sleep as good. Other then the fact that you don’t have heat/air while your traveling, it wasn’t bad. Normally by the time we stop were tired and ready to lay in bed and relax anyway.

We woke to a nippy morning .. we took the dogs potty, went inside and got coffee, soda and a honey bun for the road. We pulled out of the Pilot a bit after 7 am and as you can see the temp was 30 degrees!

Once we were into Mississippi the temps had warmed up nicely and it was a smooth ride.

We were finally in Mississippi and of course we had to stop at the welcome center.

The welcome center was pretty neat, it had soldiers and of course fall decorations.

Lots of miles through Mississippi as once again we are going down the entire state.

We finally arrived around 2.30 pm. Jim and a man named Russell greeted us. Hubby got us backed in and we started getting setup.

After we got settled in we went out to dinner with fellow RVer’s Jim and Lonna. They took us to a fabulous place called Catfish something .. i forget the rest but will get it later. The food was wonderful and the fish was excellent! I had a Ribeye steak that was so good, hubby and the others had all you can eat catfish .. it was really good too.

We got home around 8 or so and we were exhausted so we called it a night and went to our own homes. A shower and the bed was calling me. It’s so good to be parked in a new place.

On the road

We got up and got the last minute things done. We were ready to roll by 8 am. Our friends were not ready so we went down and helped them get their rig ready to roll. The last 3 rigs pulled out all together around 9 am. We stopped for breakfast at Tony’s and then on 55 we parted our ways. Were heading to Mississippi and their both heading to Texas.

After leaving Illinois we were in Missouri .. Yep some hills, some flat. I didn’t see a Missouri welcome sign .. oh well .. We stopped in Matthews Mo at a Love’s truck stop to fuel up and since it was around 2 o’clock we grabbed a bit of lunch. I got the sweet onion chicken teriyaki subway and hubby got fried chicken.

Crossing the Mississippi River .. what a bridge

The Mississippi is pretty wide here .. I love having internet on the road.

It’s been wonderful having my mifi with me on this trip. I am able to post to my blog and face book for family and friends to keep up with where we are.

Although it is limited and therefore the pictures have to wait until we are parked and free wifi to get posted.

After crossing the bridge Tennessee is in site.

I was so disappointed my Tennessee pic turned out blurry but it was pretty bouncy. They are doing road construction .. Oh well .. you get the ideal that we are now in Tennessee

I wanted to stop for a break and i enjoy going through the welcome centers.

Tennesse welcome center was decorated for fall .. i love fall decorations and outside they even had cotton. They are big cotton growers

From the outside it looked like some old cabin but the inside was neat .. this was really neat .. although the entry for truckers/RV’s is not so great .. look

Yes .. you walk up the stairs from the parking lot and then you walk up a steep walkway and finally arrive to the restrooms and then its back down the slope and down the stairs.

Here we are parked in the parking lot

We parked in Jackson, Tennessee in a Pilot's parking lot for the night. Tomorrow we should arrive in Mississippi. Hubby got the generator out and hooked a cord up so we could have TV, my computer and the alarm clock

Only 1 more day until moving day

1 more day and we will be moving to a new place. I love moving to new places and seeing new territory. Although we have been to Mississippi on numerous occasions this area will be new to us. This trip should be around 695 miles.

We are going to be spending most of the winter near Mobile, Alabama. Were looking forward to exploring this area and were praying that it’s much warmer then it was last year in Texas. We’ve driven through Mobile several times, but we’ve never really had the time to stop and explore.

Most of the day was spent packing things up. Cleaning and getting everything ready to roll in the morning. We went to lunch with friends, Jackson, Anna, George, Arnett, Miriam and Sally for the last time this year. After lunch hubby went to start our generator and it wouldn’t start, he tried putting the battery charger on it but it wouldn’t work either. So off to Wal-mart we went to purchase a new one. After letting the new charger charge the battery the generator started right up and worked great .. am i ever glad as it’s wonderful to have a generator when your dry camping or boon docking.

The tanks were all emptied, the water was disconnected and all the hoses were put away. It’s suppose to get down to 30 degrees tonight so we wanted everything put away that could freeze. My flowers were brought inside. I made some home made Chili for dinner tonight.

Around 4.30 pm we headed to visit Jackson and Anna and have some home made choc pie. It was delicious and after our pie we played trash train. Gabe and Kelsey called while we were visiting and so it was time to say good bye and head back home to see our kids before we head out. We ate dinner with the kids and visited. Of course they brought Myakka their doggie and as always she was happy to see papa and grammy.

The kids left around 9.30 pm and so i cleaned up and all that is left to do tomorrow is take the satellite dish down, put the computer up, hook up and pull in the slides. We don’t plan to leave to early, but you never know.

The dogs are excited, every time we go to the door they run to it and want outside, they run to the truck .. like okay, i’m ready. It’s amazing how they know when it’s time to move our home.

Dr Appt & Happy Birthday Sis

Today Is my sister Patty Birthday .. so let me say Happy Birthday Sis, love you and hope your day is a great one .. i am not going to post her age but let's just say 50 is approaching much faster .. hehe

It's another busy day for us. We got up and got dressed. I put on a pot of 15 bean soup to cook while were gone for later and then it was out the door for appointments. Brrr it’s a pretty nippy morning outside.

We had a 9 am appointment and then a 10.30 Dr. Appointment. We got our med’s scripts for the winter and we both got flu shots this year. I haven’t taken a flu shot since back when i worked in home health. After discussing our medical with our doctor he felt we both should get flue shots. Esp me with my asthma that has gotten worse over the past few years.

After doctor appointments it was on to the pharmacy to turn in our scripts and get our med’s filled before hitting the road.

On our way home we needed to make a few more stops. One was to renew our plates for the 5th wheel (expire in December 31) then on to Wal-mart for a few last minute items and then fuel up.

We got home and a couple of friends stopped by to say goodbye and then it was on to cleaning out the truck and putting all the outside stuff that we can away. It actually warmed up nicely but, there was a bit of wind that times made it cool.

Our son Gabe came and picked up the bikes and then we spent what was rest of the evening just relaxing as my back is really hurting. This cool weather is not good for my back pain.

A Day of cleaning

I got up this morning and got laundry going since i hadn’t did any since Friday. We got some rain and heavy winds early in the morning. Tornado warnings were around us but we didn’t receive any bad storms.

I got up and started going through a few cabinets that needed to be straightened. I went through months of mail that needed to be sorted. What needed to be saved, i saved, the rest i tore our name and address off and burnt and the rest got thrown in the trash.

Around 10.30 am the sun came out and even though it’s on the windy side, the temperature is 64 degrees. I opened my windows to let some fresh air in.

I’ve also been putting away stuff that has been left out since we’ve been here for 2 months. It’s amazing how much stuff you leave out when your parked for a few months in spot.

Hamburgers and fried cabbage was the choice for dinner. I cleaned up dinner dishes and the rest of the evening was spent relaxing and early to bed.

Outing with a friend

I got up and got dressed. Today my friend Wanda and I are spending our last day together for the year.

She has a dr appt and then the rest of the day is gonna be spent going to quilt shops! Wanda loves to quilt and i used to do lots of it and i still enjoy looking through the shops.

After her dr visit, we headed to Rochester to our favorite quilt shop. After spending several hours just browsing it was time for lunch.

We decided on something different today. We went to a nice quiet place (i forget the name) but the food was wonderful. We opted to have the pony shoes and wow they were so good. They make their own white cheese sauce and man o man it was so good!

After lunch we headed to Hobby Lobby, yes it’s one of my favorite’s. I bought a quilt book with a few pattern’s i might like to try some day, a Christmas story panel and some material to make a throw with. I’m thinking it’s gonna be one of my winter project .. what you think?

Then it was time to head to Joann’s … quilters can’t pass up that one either. I did purchase a couple of cutting boards and another quilt book that had more patterns. Then it was on to Wal-mart as she needed some things. We finally got home around 6.30 pm and i threw a pizza in the oven for dinner and spent the evening watching TV with hubby.

A Day with family

We got up and got things around. Today we are spending the day with our Oldest son and his family. Yeppie a day with our precious grandkids.

We spent the day enjoying our last day with our grandkids. Our daughter in law is fixing us a nice supper (Thanks Heather) since we had plans to go visit hubby’s mom our daughter in law decided to take supper to her house and fix it. My mother in law is recovering from rotary cup surgery. We had supper and a wonderful visit and the day went by so fast.

We had plans to play games with our friends Cliff and Georgia but since we didn’t get home until late it was decided we’d skip game night. Instead we came home and i took a shower and was in bed by 8.30 pm. Yep, grandma was exhausted but it was a wonderful day spending it with family

A Day of running around

Today was a day of just moving as we wanted. Sometimes those days are wonderful. I love being able to move about and do what i want or just plain be lazy if i want.

Finally around 11 am we got dressed and decided we better get some grocery shopping done if we want food to eat next week.

First we stopped at Rural King to look at their 20T jacks and then it was over to Tractor Supply. They were cheaper at Rural King so it was back to there. Hey 10 bucks is 10 bucks, esp since they are only a few blocks from each other. Then i needed to stop by the Dollar Tree. Then we decided we were hungry and so we went to our favorite place, yep .. Chinese. After lunch we did the Aldie’s and Wal-mart run and by the time we got home it was getting late. We got home put things away and then headed to play games with our friends. We had a fun night.

more work

It was a cool morning and i spent my time on the computer mapping out our route for next week. I have our route, stops for fuel and overnight stay all marked out.

After lunch i decided to wash the awning … well part of it. I got the underneath side done but only part of the top side. It will not go down far enough for me to reach like our old one. I am not able to climb on top of our rig to wash it from the roof. (hubby will have to do it later)

Almost everything outside is put away, except for lawn chairs, outside rug and bbq grill. After i finished up i came inside and book reservations for Florida in March.

Friday we are heading to spend the night Jackson, Tn and then were heading to Mississippi about 60 miles from Mobile, AL. Then we will head to Florida near Tampa for a wedding.

It’s been a great time here and of course we didn’t get to do all that we would of liked. There never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to. How true that song is.

After dinner we played games with friends and then it was home to get ready for another busy day tomorrow.

packing things away

I got up and got a load of laundry going and then i spent the morning just relaxing in my pj’s. After lunch i decided i better get busy getting some things done as we’ve decided on a departure date for Friday Oct 29th.

I took everything out from under the outside compartment and went through it and sorted what will go to storage and then put what was staying back. Then i gave 2 out of the 3 dogs a hair cut. Duke will have to wait until another day as the clippers gave out just as i was finishing up the 2nd dog.

After dinner we went and played games with friends and then it was back home and to bed.

More Laundry

I got up and got more laundry going. Having a washer/dryer in my home again is nice but .. you can only do a very small load at one time and it takes a couple of hrs per load. Yep, that is a down fall, as it only takes a couple of hours to do 8 loads. Although i have to admit i like not having to drag it in and out. I can put a load in and do other things.

I went to say bye to Archie and Carol (I missed Harvey and Julie) then i came back home and printed out some new pictures of my grandkids to update the pictures i have on the wall of them. Mine were really out of date.

After lunch i stripped our bed and took our covers over to the laundry across the road from us to get them cleaned up. They will be closing the laundry over there soon as Nov 1st is the date they like to have the water cut off.

After dinner we spent a quiet night at home just relaxing. Hubby still isn’t feeling well. His tooth is still hurting and so he is under the weather and with all the activity he is just wore out.

Cleaning Day

I got up and decided i better get this place cleaned up. I got a load of laundry going as i have several since i hadn’t done laundry all weekend. Then i got a apple crisp going in the oven and went to work on scrubbing and vacuuming. Yes i know, that isn’t fun but it has to be done.

After lunch i went to visit my friend Carol and then back home. We played games after dinner with our friends. This will be the last time with Archie and Carol, Julie and Harvey as they are heading out tomorrow.

President Lincoln Museum & Home

I got up and got ready and picked up the ladies around 8.30 am. Today is ladies day out. I dropped our truck off at the shop for new brakes all around. We met Wanda and loaded up in her car and off we went to Springfield, IL.

Our first stop was the Lincoln Museum. It cost $9.00 for senior discount and $12 for me. The parking was 10.00 for all day. Here what we saw inside.

A cabin that was to demonstrate how President Lincoln lived as a child.

A display of the White House, which displayed Mrs. Lincoln and others dresses and other items.

They had important figures sitting outside the White House and the Lincoln family was in the middle. We decided to take a photo of us ladies with the Lincoln family. Now i can say i have had my picture taken with the Lincoln family .. Yeppie

When we first arrived we were just in time for the theater to see ghosts. It was a good show and a nice way to start our tour.

Next we headed to the Union Theater just across from ghosts and it was also a good show. Myself and several other ladies almost jumped out of our seats with the loud noises.

There were several other exhibits that we toured and we did lots of reading. Pictures were only allowed in the Plaza area of the museum.

Today they were showing a special show called The Destiny and there were only so many tickets available. At 11.30 am we made sure to be in line to get ours.

After getting our tickets for the afternoon show we decided to head to get a light meal for lunch in the Cafe .. Subway is the only choice. We all had a bowl of super that wasn’t impressive. It was a filler until we ate our good meal. It carried us over and then it was time to get inline for our next show.

After we left the museum we walked down the street to see where Lincoln’s law office was. They are in the process of working on it.

In the middle of the square there is a statue of President Lincoln, Mary and one of their boys. Across the street from his law office is the old capital building where President Lincoln was shown in the House of Representatives room.

In front of the the capital is the picture of a boy.

walking back to the parking garage we stopped for another group picture with the statue of President Lincoln. See the train station behind it? I thought the station made a wonderful background for this statue.

These monuments were also in the same area.

We then headed across town to President Lincoln home before he became president.

during this time the houses did not have numbers. They had name plates in stead. It reads “ ALincoln”

Here is the street Lincoln lived on, it’s blocked off with a couple wagons that they used during the time.

This is the front parlor

Dining room with Mrs. Lincoln tea set. It was purple as purple was her favorite color

This was the second parlor as you can see Mrs. Lincoln had a taste for being colorful.

This is the spare bedroom

This was President Lincoln bed and desk (the desk had been bought and the legs had been cut down to fit the new owner.

This next bedroom was Mary’s room. We were told during our tour that Pres Lincoln would stay up until the early morning and so Mary wanted a room of her own to get the rest she needed from raising 3 boys.

Here is what the carpet looked like through out the house

This was the hired help room, it was very small.

These next 2 are pictures of the small kitchen.

After touring the home it was around 4.30 pm and we were all hungry so we headed to the Golden Corral and had a wonderful meal and fellowship. We had a great time and arrived home a few minutes before 7 pm to get our husbands and play some games. It was a long day but a wonderful day. We had a great time!!