Whew!

Well, we worked all day on the apartment. We painted today. We are just doing the walls. The ceilings are fine. . . just the walls were bad. I don't know how two adults could get the walls so dirty in four years time. We don't work very fast. We take frequent breaks and also did lunch at the condo. And we quit at 4 p.m. That was enough for us, though. We have one room left to do. Then we will run the vacuum and I will mop the floors. We will call the carpet cleaners then and have the carpets done and it will be ready to rent!

Our new tenants have moved in across the street and seem to be happy in their new place. They are a young couple and very pleasant.

We did learn that one of our dear tenants, an elderly woman, has cancer and the prognosis is not good. Her husband died 15 years ago from cancer and she does not plan on doing as many chemo treatments as he did. She will try it but may not continue. She is doing radiation every day however. After her husband died, she eventually re-connected with a high school man she had dated. He also was widowed. They fell in love and married around ten years ago, I think. They are in their 70's now and I think theirs is a neat love story. She is facing a tough road ahead and she could use prayers. Her name is Libby.

We are here for three weeks and are anxious to see many of our old friends. If you are coming through, let us know and we can hook up for dinner or a campfire!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Son Brandon comes to visit!

It's a family reunion! Brandon and his girlfriend, Megan, drove up to Charlottesville from Melbourne, Florida, on Thursday. It took them about 12 hours. They arrived around 6:30 p.m. It is the first time in 2 1/2 years that we have all been together. It was truly a special few days.

Brandon brought presents for Ronan, of course, for his third birthday which was Wednesday. He brought him motorcycles--one green Ninja which is like his motorcycle and a black Ninja which is like Megan's. Ronan was thrilled with them. He loves anything that moves. . . trucks, equipment, cars, scooters, motorcycles, airplanes, helicopters, etc. He also got him a T-ball set and so we all went out in the yard to watch Ronan hit the ball. He really didn't need much instruction. . . he has quite an arm on him. He tends to favor his left hand when hitting the ball. Brandon says that is good, because left-handed players get more money! Hah! We may already have a star on our hands.

Friday evening all the kids came out to our camp at the KOA. We had a campfire and we grilled steaks. We also had a veggie plate and fruit plate and salad. Jocelyn brought some brown jasmine rice and we all ate till we were stuffed.

Afterwards we all sat around the fire and enjoyed each other's company. Ronan fell asleep in his mother's arms. He is such a little sweetie. We had both Whiskey, Jocelyn and Tom's standard Poodle and Neal. They are great friends. The party broke up around 10 p.m. We hated to see them go.

Today we left Charlottesville at 8 a.m. and headed north. We are camped at our "way point" in Gallipolis, Ohio. Tomorrow we will be at Camp Pull-Tab in Ohio. They are really great friends of ours and we met them when we all first started full-timing. We are anxious to see them.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Riverview Park and the Rivanna River

Jocelyn usually takes Ronan out every day for a walk. They frequently walk downtown Charlottesville. Ronan now normally rides his "balance bike" which is a bike with no pedals. It is small enough he can sit on it and his feet touch the ground. He more/less starts out "walking" astride the bike, but now he will pull his feet up and coast. He has developed a great deal of balance and when the time comes for him to get a regular bike with pedals, it is likely he will not need training wheels.

We went out with them to Riverview Park which is along the Rivanna River. Both are quite nice. We enjoy the walk and met several other dogs and people who were also out enjoying the sunshine and nice spring weather.

On Wednesday, Jocelyn and I took Ronan and drove to Lynchburg, Virginia, to a Children's Museum. It was much larger than most I have been to and had many interesting activities for children. Ronan like the water exhibit which showed the effects of hills and locks on the flow of the river. Course, the kids get boats to float down the water and everyone ends up wet. No wonder they like it. Ronan also like the farm exhibit and, of course, the trains.

Ronan likes his new quilt I made him. I call it his "camping quilt." I used blocks of fabric that have camping themes, pictures of camping items and animals you see in the woods. It is called a "rag" or "biscuit" quilt. The seams are sewn to one side and you clip the seam allowance. Then when you wash it, it frays and becomes fuzzy. The other side is smooth. They are easy to do.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Ronan, Ronan, Ronan, it's all about Ronan!

As well it should be. . . it is his third birthday today. We were here when he was born and what a wonderful time that was. We got to hold him shortly after the big event and started the spoiling right then. It continues to this day, I am happy to say.

Jocelyn, Ronan and I drove to Lynchburg, Virginia, today to visit the Children's Museum there. It is quite a large museum and Ronan had a very good time visiting all the areas and experimenting with the various activities. His favorite was the water table which had two rivers of water and locks which opened and closed and rapids. There were small reproductions of boats that traveled the rivers in the area and those boats could be carried to the top of the river and floated down through the locks and rapids.

We have enjoyed visiting with the kids this week and enjoyed watching Ronan play and interact with his friends and family. He is quite articulate and easy to talk to. His big thing now is time. He is always asking what time it is. Think that boy needs a watch!

Till next time. . .

Dale

It's mine, mine, mine.....................

Hi all, Terry here...

Hi-jacking the blog again!

We're camped at the KOA south of Charlottesville VA, been here since Saturday afternoon. We have heavy tree cover so none of our rooftop satellite systems, air card or cellphones work very well. So we're having to depend on the campground's somewhat slow Internet wi-fi connection and some text messages.

Ronan's birthday week is going great. All four of his grandparents were here for this past weekend and as of Monday we've had him to spoil all by ourselves, since Grandpa Tom and Grandma Sharon had to go back to New Jersey and work! Today is a birthday party on his actual birthday, with the kids in his play group at a local park. Tomorrow brings Uncle Brandon and girlfriend Megan from Florida to complete the little guy's 3rd birthday week. Hard being a kid isn't it.

I got a call from one of my Indy doctors Monday, inviting me to a stress test in my honor at Methodist Hospital in Indy the 18th of May. We were surprised since we were basically told "We'll see you this fall". Seems the two of them got together compared notes and decided "Terry needs a little further inspection." So we'll be there as requested for a chemical stress test. Whoopee, fun time for Terry. Should be used to these things since I've had about 10 of them in the past 12 years, but this will be only the 2nd chemically induced one. I must admit the brief "hot flash" and recovery time isn't quite as bad as 7-10 minutes on the treadmill.

Till next time...unless Dale breaks my fingers.

Terry

Raining in Gallipolis, Ohio

We had hoped to leave New Lisbon before it started raining, but it started at 7 a.m.! So much for an early start. We did get gone by 7:50 a.m. and we had minimal rain along the way. After about 20 minutes, we were out of the rain and just had spots of it on the drive to Gallipolis. We enjoy the fairgrounds campground here and got set up and took Neal out before the real rain set in.

We would have driven further, but once you get into West Virginia, it's pretty much a bust for camping for us. There isn't 40' of flat land on which to park Phaeton Place and if there is, getting there is impossible. There is one park we know of along the interstate and Terry called, but they are not open until May 1. So we decided to sit tight and make it an early night so we can get up early and drive on into Charlottesville, Virginia. Our grandson, Ronan, is turning 3 this week and we have to be there.

The drive tomorrow will be mostly mountains, but we have done it many times before. . . so no surprises.

Some of you have asked about Terry's doctor appointments. They went well. They are adjusting some of his meds, trying to eliminate the cause of the arrhythmias he had. Until then, they still don't want him to drive because the onset of the arrhythmias is too quick to respond, so he remains my navigator. He does that extremely well, so no problem there.

Till next time. . .

Dale

..............Definitely on the road again...

Terry hi-jacking the blog.

Left New Lisbon, Indiana a few minutes ago, on I-70 enroute to Charlottesville, Virginia for grandson Ronan's 3rd birthday. Dale is behind the wheel and I'm in the navigator's seat, looks like I'll be here for another 3-4 months after my Doctors' appointments in Indianapolis yesterday. We're heading to Gallipolis, Ohio to spend the night, so Dale can rest up before the trip through West Virginia tomorrow. The trip from Charleston east involves several long 7% grades, that she usually drives anyway, so I'm sure she will do great.

On the road again. . . .

One apartment is rented! Yay! We had two that were vacant and the one is going to have to have some paint. There were a couple of maintenance items with it as well. . . nothing that had to do with the previous tenant, but just parts wearing out. So we worked on it and we will finish when we return in a couple weeks. The other we rented to a young couple who seem very nice and they have a good history of paying their bills.

We left Goshen at noon today and took a leisurely drive down south to New Lisbon, Indiana. This is south of our old home but in the same county. We have doctor's appointments in nearby New Castle this week and Terry sees his cardiologist in Indianapolis as well. Neal sees his veterinarian, too, so it will be a busy week. We leave here on Friday and head to Virginia for our grandson Ronan's third birthday. We are getting started to Virginia a day later than usual, so it will mean longer driving days.

There are several people from the town where we lived who live here at the campground in the summer. They come here on the weekends. It is a nice place and we have already seen our old neighbor. We got to visit with him and his dog, Tucker, whom I have missed since we left the area.

We just had a family come in next to us. The dad got out and was hooking up and he had his dog with him. I think Boomer must be an Akita. We got to talking about Boomer who was exploring the area. Boomer has no eyes. Incredible dog. He had glaucoma in both eyes and the pain was excruciating. He said Boomer's eyes were bulging and he was always rubbing them up against stuff to relieve the pain. The veterinarian who did the surgery said he would adjust very well. He has and it has been about four years. The man was wearing flip-flops and said that Boomer listens and follows the sound of the flip-flops. It was obvious also that Boomer was very tuned into the man's voice and even the voice of their little girl, Olivia. I called him over to me and he followed my voice and came directly to me. He never faltered and if you didn't know he was not sighted, you wouldn't guess. His eye sockets are stitched shut, but he has so much fur, you don't noticed his (lack of) eyes unless you are close to him. He is a remarkable dog.

We are sitting not far from I-70 and we can see the traffic across the pond. We have been seeing more RV's on the road lately. I think a lot of them that we saw today were families returning from a weekend camping. It has been an unusually nice past week and weekend here in Indiana and I am sure everyone wanted to get out and enjoy the weather.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Back here again--in Indiana

Well, even though that little bluebird made a mess of my mirrors, I had to post another picture of him. He was so beautiful. And Terry went out with the windex and cleaned off my mirrors. Thanks, Babe.

We drove on north and crossed into Indiana at Louisville. We camped at Charlestown at the state park. Indiana has a lot to learn about campgrounds. While this is a beautiful campground, I find very few campgrounds worth $34+ a night, even with full hookups. That is what they are charging. Last year we stayed here in the same site with FHU's and the cost was $24. That is a pretty hefty increase in just one year. What are they thinking? I can tell you what people are thinking. . . it was a gorgeous weekend, each day hit 84* and there were probably fewer than a dozen campers in the entire camp. What purpose does raising the price to a prohibitive amount serve and then letting this camp sit empty? I know the state is trying to save/raise money, but a small increase would have been better. One that would put more money in the state coffers but not scare people away.

We stayed two nights there and did some sightseeing. One place I had always wanted to go while we lived in Indiana was the Falls of the Ohio. There at the Falls are some of the oldest fossil beds and during periods of low water, they are not only visible, but people are allowed to walk out on them and get a closer look. That was not possible now because this is a period of high water. The falls actually look more like rapids now because the river has been dammed up and a barrier put in place to section off the fossil beds. I think that was done more for navigation as the falls are the only barrier for over 900 miles of the river. The falls originally were a series of small falls dropping a total of 26 feet. When you see the water roiling now you can understand just how dangerous these rapids would be to an unsuspecting boater. The pictures show the amount of debris that is covering the approach to the fossil beds. Some of the beds are visible, but the trek over the driftwood and other trash was prohibitive. Spring cleanup will take care of a lot of the debris, but for the present, we observed the fossils in the rocks that were relocated on the grounds of the park. This is a very interesting park and there is an interpretive center that provides more information about how the fossil beds were formed. A school bus in the parking lot and noisy kids in the center made us decide to opt for the self-guided tour. On the grounds was a bronze statue of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on the place where they met, thus starting the Lewis and Clark Expedition which was to find a water route from the midwest to the Pacific ocean.

We left the Falls park and drove on down the levee to the cabin of George Rogers Clark. He was a brother to William Clark and was a Revolutionary War hero whose efforts claimed the entire area northwest of the Ohio River. In doing this, he took out a lot of loans on the promise by the President that they would be paid back. When they weren't he ended up bankrupt. The government eventually paid him back in land along the Ohio River where he built this cabin and lived out most of the rest of his life. Eventually most of his land was confiscated by creditors and a stroke made it impossible for him to live alone. He moved in with a relative on the other side of the river and died a few years later of the another stroke.

We moved from Charlestown yesterday and drove through some drizzle to Summit Lake State Park near Mooreland, Indiana, where we used to live. We like this park and right now it is quite cheap. But we only have electric, as they haven't turned on the water yet. It is actually on the same par price wise as Charlestown, but cheaper now because of reduced services, whereas Charlestown is all up and running. We are here because a colleague of mine from my teaching days has invited us for Easter dinner. It will be great to see friends again. Tomorrow we are breaking camp and will travel north to Goshen for some maintenance on the apartments.

Till next time. . .

Dale