Rollin' toward Camp Pull-Tab!

We are done with doctor appointments until April! Everything went well and we are rolling toward Camp Pull-Tab in St. Paris, Ohio, after breakfast.

Last evening was spent visiting friends. First, former colleague Dave and his friend Mark, along with Brody, the one-year old Scottish Terrier came by to visit. Dave and Mark have an RV, a class C and entertained us with lots of stories about "close calls" while driving and pulling their toad. I meant to tell them that they certainly have had their share of "adventures" in that department and it's time to put that behind them. Hah. Maybe next year they will join us down here when we come in the spring and we can swap stories and sit around the campfire. Dave and Mark have certainly taken to RVing in a big way by jumping into some really big trips. They started out going places I would like to go. Dave has sent me some DVD's on their trips. He puts the pictures together into a slide show and they really are great.

Later last evening we went to visit Dave and Tammy. Dave pastors a church in the town where we lived, but they are leaving in two weeks. Their one son and our Brandon were/are best friends and we hadn't seen Aaron's folks since we left two years ago. They are leaving and going to a church in Oscoda, Michigan. They were originally from Michigan, although not this area, but they are excited about the move and offered us a place to park once they get settled in. They will be just two blocks from Lake Huron and their house is right on 23. We came right by it this summer when we were coming down the east side of Michigan, so we know how beautiful the area is.

It's been a great week here, reconnecting with old friends and getting the medical stuff taken care of. We packed way too much in. . . maybe we need to look at spending more time in the area so we don't have to rush so much, but we are done now.

It was 44 degrees outside when we got up this morning. Bailey went out and turned right around and came back in. Hah. Terry is busy fixing my breakfast. The dogs have eaten, so we are getting ready to move.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Busy, busy, busy

Well, it is always a busy week when we come here, because we pack doctor appointments and vet appointments into 4 days. Also throw in a couple of haircuts and visits with old friends and we are never bored!

Today we started out by taking the dogs back into the vets for their teeth cleaning appointments. They haven't been done in a long time and they were quite bad, but no extractions were necessary. Yay! Neal, my handicapped dog who cannot walk seems to be doing well tonight although he is stumbling even worse. But he is alert and ate his supper. Bailey, on the other hand, is quite lethargic and is not eating. I did get him to take some Braunsweiger and finally a marrow bone treat. He took his pill at supper because I put it in Braunsweiger, but other than that, he is just really moping around. I check him periodically to see if he's breathing. They are both 11 years old and I'm not really worried about either of them, but after years of healthy living, they have both had some issues this year. We thought perhaps the poor condition of their teeth was contributing somewhat to these issues, so we decided to do it.

I am going to sleep in the recliner tonight just to make sure they don't have any problems. We just took them outside one last time and now they are both lying down, so I think it will be a quiet evening.

Tomorrow I am getting the shingles vaccine and my mammogram in Indy, and then we are done. A colleague and friend are stopping by tomorrow evening. Haven't seen him since we retired. We taught together for 20 years and he has a Scottie puppy now, so he is bringing Brody out to meet the boyz. Should be fun.

For those of you remembering my niece's preemie baby, Collin, in your prayers, I am pleased to tell you he is now over 3 pounds and has removed his NG tube for the second time. They have decided to leave it out now and he is nursing and taking the bottle very well. He hasn't had any problems. Keep up those good thoughts!

Till next time. . .

Dale

SLSP aka Summit Lake State Park

We are comfortably ensconced in site A70 at the state park--about 3 miles from our former home of 33 years. We have already spent a day at doctors, labs and veterinarians and this morning got haircuts and getting ready for round two of doctors, brokers, and dinner invitations later today. Busy, busy week. But if we can last 4 days, we are done for 6 months.

We switched out one of our sofas for two recliners with a file cabinet between. I can't believe we didn't do it sooner. At least it was easy to do. Terry built a credenza behind them; and we have found that if we pull the one chair out, it gives the user a good view of the TV and allows easy access to the storage and gives it more of a "living room" feel to the front end of the coach. It gets a little crowded with the dog pen set up, but that is only at night or when we leave, so it is manageable.

Tonight we meet friends, Jack and Janet, for dinner at Appleby's. We used to go out to eat periodically when we lived here, so it will be good to visit with them again.

All those of you '05'ers+ who were at the Pre-Escapade Rally at Elkhart Campground that SPAM hosted, take note. . . Remember all the rain and the mosquitos? (Like WHO could forget. . . unless you were brain-dead.) Well 120 miles south down here just north of New Castle, there is a drought situation here and further south. No dew in the mornings, farm ponds are dried out and guess what. . . FEW mosquitos. I can't say there are none, but not the swarms we saw up north. That all may change today as there are "occasional" thunderstorms forecast for today and tomorrow.

Thursday night, colleagues of mine are coming to visit. Dave retired the same time I did and he has a Scottie puppy Brody he is bringing. I can't wait to see them all.

Well, got to start getting ready.

Till next time. . .

Dale

On the Road Again. . . . .

And boy does it feel good. I hate being cooped up in the house, but at least we planned to only stay there about 2 weeks this summer. This summer we did a lot of work on the apartments, which is why I haven't been blogging. Too dang tired. We rented an apartment, put in/had done a new floor in the kitchen in the main house, 4 new garage doors, repainted all the trim and had new windows put into one duplex. In addition we managed to clean out a little more of the main house and I trimmed all the bushes. . . all 50 of them. . . well. . . it sure seemed like 50, but I think it was more like 25.

After Escapade, we spent the following week at the house finishing up all the loose ends and getting the house ready to close up. In addition, I had some needed dental work done and I finally got my new glasses. Yay!!!! We had ordered glasses at Sears. The first time they came in they had no bifocals. The second time they switched Terry's right lens prescription with mine. Ugh. The third time, Terry's were fine, but I couldn't see squat through mine. Tried them for almost a week. I couldn't see at night at all. Everything just ran together. Turns out, they put a prizm in them. Grrrrrrrr. So I told Sears that "three strikes and you're out." Got my money back and went to "Julie's Eye Care" in South Bend. Man is that gal ever sharp. She had my glasses in 2 days and they are perfect. I really like them. They are rimless on the bottom and come with their own magnetic sunglasses. Really cool.

Yesterday I visited the hospital to see my great-nephew. My niece, Staci, and her husband were expecting their bundle of baby boy in October, but he had other ideas. He arrived at 33 weeks and is perfect, just very tiny. His cord was wrapped around him and stretched very thin and was no longer sustaining him. Had he not come early, he probably would not have survived, so we are very glad he was strong enough to come out into the world. He is doing very well and Staci and Kevin are anxious to take him home when he gets bigger. Big sister Breanna can't wait to hold him either. Collin is now over 3 pounds and gaining strength everyday. Prayers are appreciated.

We left Goshen at 1:30 today and stopped by the woods at Claypool where Mom and Dad, Jim and Nita live. Pulled over to the side of the road (there is a pulloff) and they came out to see us off and to see our new chairs. We took out one of our sofas and put in 2 recliners with a file cabinet between them. Terry built a credenza like cabinet behind so I didn't lose that storage. He did a beautiful job on it and we think we are really going to like our recliners. We drove on down to Summit Lake State Park north of New Castle and will be here for the week. This is the week of marathon doctor appointments, so we will be busy. We drove into Mooreland to see our friends, Jack and Janet, and are going to meet them at Appleby's Tuesday night for dinner. It will be good to visit with them some more.

Once we finish here, we are off to Camp Pull-Tab in Ohio for a couple days, then on to Virginia and RONAN, grandson extraordinaire.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Escapade 2007!!!!!!!!!!

Escapade has arrived and we are busy attending meetings and visiting with friends. We left Elkhart Campground early Sunday morning and were really worried about pulling out and getting stuck. Gita assured us the ground was solid under us, but we weren't so sure. Turns out she was right. Terry did back Phaeton Place up a bit as there was just grass behind us and then started out and kept going till he was on solid ground. Didn't even make any ruts at the site.

We led a caravan of three. . . we had Bill and Helen behind us and Gene and Marianne. We got to the fairgrounds ahead of a long entourage and got parked in good order. The only problem was we thought we would all be able to park together, but we were in a full hookup area and the others weren't, so we were separated, but we are still close by. BUT, we are parked right next to a couple in a new Phaeton who we met at Red Bay this past June. . . it is indeed a small world.

Sunday night's entertainment was Pantasia, a steel drum band from Findley, Ohio. We have heard them before at previous Escapades and they are wonderful. The kids enjoy performing and they do a very good job. They compete nationally and do very well.

We haven't won any door prizes yet. I keep thinking it's our turn, but I guess it doesn't work that way.

The mosquitoes have been miserable. . . or I should say they are making US miserable. It started to rain last night and rained throughout the night, but not hard. This morning we awoke to much cooler weather, sunshine. . . and best of all . . . NO MOSQUITOES. Well, at least fewer of the little biters.

We attended several sessions today and enjoyed them. Tomorrow we have some more on our list, then we have to run out and get our new glasses.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Ronan, et al. . .

Last week we left Goshen with Mom and Dad. They drove their motorhome separately and we drove to Virginia to see Jocelyn, Tom and Ronan. We spent one night on the road at Gallipolis, Ohio, and then drove on to Misty Mountain Campground in Crozet, Virginia. We arrived around 4:30 in the afternoon and got busy setting up camp.

Jocelyn and Ronan surprised us as we were registering, so Great Grandma Alice and Ronan got to meet for the first time. We got a good visit in. The week was spent doing a lot of visiting and helping the kids with their new kitchen. We just cannot get enough of our grandson. He is such a cutie. And Jericho, the poodle, was a real treat. He is so good and loves the baby. He likes to play with his toys and knows them all by name. The last night we all got together for a group shot. Four generations!

Friday morning we broke camp and start back to Indiana. We have a pre-Escapade rally this week and the Escapade next week, so we will be busy. We spent the night in Gallipolis, Ohio, then back to Goshen.

We spent the night at the house in Goshen, then gave Phaeton Place and the truck a much needed bath before heading to the Elkhart Campground and the Escapade Pre-Rally. While we were outside washing the rig, I took this shot of the Goodyear blimp, apparently traveling back from the Notre Dame/Georgia Tech game. We also had a visitor in the lawn mower bay. I tried most of the morning to lure him out to no avail. Finally I called Jocelyn and she told me what to do. He apparently was attracted by the red gas cans in the bay, so I took them down off the shelf and lined them up on the floor going out the door. It took about a half hour, but I stepped back in just in time to see him fly down from the ceiling and duck under the open garage door and fly to freedom. He had to be one tired bird, so I hope he found the neighbor’s feeder.

We made it to the camp and site 408 by 4:30 in the afternoon. We are safely set for the week looking forward to some festivities with the group. We got to see several friends we have missed over the summer. . . Bill and Helen, Janice and Dean, Nick and Terry, and of course. . . SPAM. Pictures will follow, but the mosquitos drove us inside last evening. We didn’t have any when we were here earlier in the summer, but they have gotten so much rain that the population has exploded.

Till next time. . .

Dale