Happy Birthday Gabe

I want to wish our youngest son Gabe a Happy Birthday!  He is 24 today!  Wow how time has flown by.  Hope you have a great day .. Mom and Dad love you.

I slept great last night.  Our new place is so peaceful at night.  We are in the city yet we located far enough back from the streets we do not hear the sirens and all that goes along with it.
  
I’m looking forward to being near all the shopping malls and such.  I got up this morning and started my morning with a walk around the track.  Yes, I have a paved track to walk around.  I have been wanting to get back to my walking as i can really tell my legs have lost a lot muscle that i had built up a few years ago.  Lately we haven’t been parked in good walking conditions for me.  I need a sidewalk or good firm asphalt.  I have problems walking in rocks,uneven surfaces and up and down hills.  Lexi is so happy as well she loves to walk with me and she found a squirrel and several birds to chase.

Then i got busy with getting all my stuff out that makes our home feel like home.  Then it was time to meet hubby for lunch.  After lunch i needed to make a Aldies and Dollar Tree run.  Yep, I just love having quick access to all the stores i need to visit.

Later in the afternoon i visited with my friend Dorothy and after dinner Lexi and I took a walk around.  We enjoyed the smell of all the wonderful flowers we got to see on our walk.

Rolling Today

I woke up around 4 am with a headache.  So I got up and took some Aleve's and let a couple of the dogs outside to go potty.  I could see some lighting off and around 5 am i went back to bed.  I woke up around 6.30 am and i could hear the rain hitting the roof so i knew there was no reason to start early.  I rolled over and went back to sleep until 7.30 am.  Hubby was up so i figured i better get up and get the last things done.  Once the rain stopped we were busy.

I had to fasten the bar stools to the couch, unhook the bedroom tv from the satellite and pull the bedroom slide in far enough to get the cord through the slide out  .. ooops it wouldn’t work?  Hmm then hubby remembered he didn’t have the new battery hooked up yet.  Yep, no battery (I will post on that at a later time) .. no slide moving.  Then i had to fasten the bedroom closet doors down … yes now i remember to tie them shut as to not get them caught on the slide again.  My last thing to do inside is putting away hubby’s computer and packing mine and our Mifi for our trip.

While i was doing my inside stuff hubby was outside, taking the back jacks down, taking the satellite down (it’s always one of the last things)  Then it was time to load the dogs in the truck (they don’t like being inside when we hook up to the truck), hook the truck up and pull in the slides. 

Around 9.30 am we were rolling to our next destination.  We only traveled 125 miles.  We spent the afternoon hooking up our full hookups, hubby had to put one side of our tires on boards to get level, satellite dish and putting the awning out since it’s hot here too.  
 
Once we got that all done we visited with friends Ron and Dorothy who are here as well.  We meet a new friend who is a RV Volunteer too.  Later we took a trip down the street to Wal-mart.  Dinner tonight was roasted chicken from Wal-mart.

We don’t have to worry about the darkness because we are parked right next to a football field and the lights come on and light up the entire area around us.  Here is what we see out our windows tonight.

Tonight we are settled in and looking forward to spending some time here in Springfield.  We have several things planned for our stay here. 

A Day of Packing and organizing

It’s another hot day!  Ughhh we’ve had extreme heat the past 3 days.  I have not complained with the heat that we’ve had this summer.  Instead I’ve tried to enjoy it and take advantage of enjoying the cool creek.  But triple digits?

I found this picture of my grand daughter Hailey after Kelsey had done her hair.  Look how long her hair is getting.  Blonde and long just like grandma’s. I really have gotten a dark tan on my back, arms, chest and face. (you can see me in the background)

We’ve spent our entire day organizing and packing things up.  It’s amazing how much stuff we tend to get out when the kids are with us.  I washed up the fishing vest and stored them away, put up all the rafting stuff, the kids toys, water shoes and all the things we will not need at our next location.  Of course it’s been a day of working a bit outside and then coming inside and working inside where it’s nice and cool.

Were going to miss the ranch but we are both ready to move on. Friends Deb and Rick stopped by and we had our good bye hugs.  We pray they will find a tow vehicle and be on the road with us soon.

Happy Birthday to me

Today is my birthday!  Wow .. I'm 45 today!  I spent most of the day cleaning up from our family vacation.  What fun huh? 

Later that evening great friends Rick and Deb had us over for dinner.  Deb made a wonderful meal of g.beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, and fried chicken.  Then she surprised me with a birthday cake.  It was all so good.  After dinner we visited and enjoy time together.  Thanks Deb and Rick we love you both.
Then it was time to say good night and we headed home where i finished up a few things and then it was shower time and off to bed.

Trip to Illinois

We got up early and everyone was ready to hit the road.  We are taking the bikes back and the kids are going home to return to work.

It’s been a fun time but to be honest, I’m ready to have my home back and some time to rest up.  I love having my family around and spending time but there are times I am also glad to have my quiet time.
 
After a little bit of visiting and unloading the bikes we said our good byes and then headed back home so that we can clean and pack up for our departure on Wednesday.  It’s really extremely hot outside on our way back home the temps were in the triple digits. 


It’s been a very long day, we left around 8 am and didn’t arrive back home until around 9 pm.

Visitors

We had some visitors today. 


This is Clyde and Bonnie, they came to visit us and we had fun feeding them and watching them climb and be curious about our strange home.  They love to find places to hide and behind Gabe's back was one of them.  We had to put pillows and covers to stuff any place they could crawl into to hide. 


Our family vacation time is coming to an end soon.  The kids will be going home and we will be taking the bikes back.  


We have commitments that we will be fulfilling and then we will be returning to Illinois to see the kids and get ready for Convention.

Dilemma

Lately I have been experiencing the itch to hitch and move.  Not just to a different campground but a new area all together.  Although I'm in a dilemma because we have commitments.   Our first commitment is to our kids and grand daughter as they are here with us.  Hailey is a joy and having a blast.  I know that is why we stay so close in the summer at the ranch is because of our kids and grand kids love it here.  We get to spend quality time together that we do not during the winter months.  Last night our grand daughter curled up on her papa’s lap and hugged him and told him she was glad she was here with us.  My heart tugged.  We love our kids and grandkids so much and they are precious too us.  The kids will be heading home on Sunday, not sure when were taking the grand daughter home yet.

Secondly we have committed to doing some volunteer work when we leave here and then the first week of October we have the RV Convention.
 
A part of my heart wants to stay here and enjoy the rest of our summer with our family, yet another part of me is ready to hit the road and explore new adventures.  I find the more we live the full-time lifestyle the more i enjoy moving and seeing new places. I’m ready for fall to arrive so that we can continue our journey of exploring the USA.