Happy Easter

Carlinville, IL
Please remember today is about Jesus Christ a wonderful Lord and Savior.  He died on the cross for our sins and today we celebrate him rising from the tomb.

We woke to a Nippy morning .. but it feels good to be here.  We are surrounded by wonderful friends who are like family to us.  We lazy around a bit since it’s Easter!  After finally getting into gear we ran into town to Wal-mart to pick up a few needed items.  One on the list was a rake to rake our yard.  It’s had a ruff winter.  I called my friend Wanda and we stopped by her home and borrowed a few items we needed to work.  couple rakes, pitch fork and a shovel.

It took us all day to rake our yard which is not very big :))  We had to work a bit, rest a bit.  Actually more resting then working but finally around 4.30 PM we had it all looking very good.  Hubby burned the leaves while i was inside straightening up.  Gabe and Kelsey stopped by to see us on their way home from church.  Later in the evening i got a very nice Easter gift.  My daddy, brother and his family and my sister Patty and her family stopped by and we had a great time visiting.  My daddy looks wonderful compared to the picture i saw of him on his birthday.  I was so happy

They left around 9 PM and it was time to do some resting and getting my blog updated.  I’m sorry i have been behind but it’s been a busy few days.  Our yard looks nice and we plan to get some tomato plants and things tomorrow. 
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  I did!!  We haven’t seen our grand babies yet and were excited to get to see them soon.  We still have several to visit but we will have some time. 

Happy Birthday Tobe Man!

On the road to Illinois .. home here we come!!

Today our lil Tobe Man is 4 years old!  We will not be attending his party as it’s not fair to our grand daughter Hailey since we don’t come home in Jan for her birthday.  We only do the big birthdays, like 1, 5, 10 and so on.  We are thinking of you Toby and Grandma and Papa can’t wait to see you!  we love you and miss you veryyy much!  Hope your day is a great one!!

We have been traveling on lots of rolling hills the past few days
 
Missouri is a beautiful state, I love the rock!!

traffic has been pretty good and not too much .. it’s been another great day to travel but as you can see traffic is picking up

this is why .. Six  Flags is open today
 
Downtown St. Louis is getting closer

We could see the arch

Illinois is getting closer

Ughh i barely got the Illinois State Line sign .. grrr hubby you know i like to stay to the right for me to capture the sign .. you see part of Illinois State and not sure about the line but i swear it’s there

Welcome to Illinois our 8th state we have traveled in this past winter
 
something was going on at the race track
   
another snow bird looks to be heading North

home is getting closer and we have not told anyone we are on our way home .. were going to surprise them all :))
  
almost there .. doesn’t look the farmers are in the fields here yet .. hmm we’d of thought they would have taken advantage of the early spring .. think their world winter is still around the corner?

We arrived and several of our friends were home .. Jim and Wanda, Dave and Cora and they were surprised to see us .. in fact we were a topic of their conversation earlier in the day :)) 
We got set up and spent the evening sitting around a fire at Wanda and Jim’s who is across the street from us .. we had a wonderful evening and Jim even shared a hot dog with me that was cooked on the fire.  Thank you knuckle head .. it was delicious!  We called it a night around 10 pm as the fire was going out and everyone had plans for tomorrow.  It feels so good to be home.  Most of our family is located in Illinois.  Because it's where we grew up, raised our family Illinois will always be home to us.  So when i use the phase "back home" I mean Illinois.   

Were at the Ranch

Caulfield, Missouri

We decided a couple days of rest was in order and tomorrow is opening day of trout fishing!  Yes, hubby is so excited.

After all that traveling yesterday i needed a day of absolutely nothing but rest.  We both slept in and woke to a chilly morning.  brrr it’s cold here.  I want my T-shirt and shorts weather back!!

We visited with our friend Rick and took a ride around the ranch to see how it looked.  Nothing really much going on and we decided to stay another night for another day of R & R since my back is not holding up to well with this cold weather.  For some reason the fish didn’t get released so there wasn’t any fishing on Friday.  It was a boring day and I’m ready to move on so we have decided tomorrow (on Saturday) we will pull out and be heading toward Illinois

Saying Good bye to a beloved Sister

My sister Rose Mary has been laid to rest.  May she rest in peace and rejoice with her baby boy and mom.

The top photo is what my sister looked like before she got ill.

See the difference after she became ill and fought a long hard battle to the end. 

Rose Mary even though you are no longer on this earth with us, instead you are rejoicing in heaven.  You will never be forgotten and you will always remain in our hearts.  We are sad that you have left us but we rejoice with you as you embrace your baby boy and mom.  Rest in Peace beloved mother, sister, aunt and wife.  The memories we have we will cherish and hold dear to our hearts.  I love you sis, you were a good big sister.

On the road again

We were up at 5.30 AM and took our time getting the last minute things packed and ready to go.  We didn’t have much as we hooked up the night before and basically just had the coffee pot, TV antenna, computers, slides, water hose,  electrical cord and front jacks.  It was barely breaking day light when we headed to dump the tanks and on the road.  (I took this picture of us hooked up before dark the night before)

As you can see it was still breaking day light when we arrived in Alabama.

 

Finally it was daylight and we were travel on a roller coaster.  Around the curves and up and down we went.

 

weee were having fun

 

We ran into construction.  I don’t think we’ve ever traveled where we haven’t hit construction

More fun ahead .. we just went through Birmingham, AL and looks like more mountains

 

Oh yeah construction and look at that climb ahead of us

  

In a bit 2 big boys are gonna meet

 

We took US 431 to US 78 to I-78 which is going to be the future I-22 when it’s finished.  Beautiful scenery and a beautiful day for exploring new roads.

We saw several other RV’s on the road.  Looks like the snow birds are all starting their journey north

   

We arrived in Mississippi .. one of our favorite states!

We are making good time and decided the truck stop we had planned to spend the night at in Red Banks, MS wasn’t needed as we both still felt like traveling some more miles.

 

For an Interstate not much traffic at all ..just the way we love it!!

the wild flowers are in blooms.  i love seeing them

 

were still on our roller coaster .. ughh the gas mileage isn’t going to like that.

    

Hello Tennessee .. although  i almost didn’t get the sign .. i wasn’t paying attention

were in Memphis can you tell?

 

we passed this huge place where they unload rail cars and put the trailers on semi’s to haul to their destination.  this place is several blocks long and i loved watching them.

 

right before arriving into Arkansas and crossing the bridge this poor soul was getting a tow.

Welcome to Arkansas .. umm were on our 5th state .. GA, AL, MS, TN, AR

here we go across the bridge, we went a different directions through Memphis this time so we didn’t get to pass Graceland.  Maybe next time.

I was needing this too .. ughhh

were getting closer to our destination for the night our 6th state is fast approaching.

  

Ughhh .. we hit a bump as i snapped the picture and it turned out blury .. you can see it says Missouri .. our 6th state of the day .. wow were putting on some miles

 

We arrived at the ranch around 6.30 pm and we got a spot and parked for the night .. what a very long day.  After getting setup we got some dinner and went to visit our friend Rick we hadn’t seen him since we left the ranch in July!!