Month: April 2021

On the road again, but just a bit

We finally went camping again! On Wednesday we went to a local park that is a whopping 7 miles away – Big Woods County Park. It is a lovely place with long sites. Most are wide, but they have two rows of “buddy sites” where if you pull in correctly you will face the folks next door. Luckily we found a site that backed up on the bike route and lake. We were hoping to dewinterize the motorhome, but the water wasn’t going to be turned on u til Thursday. Whoops! We stayed at home for the night and went back on Thursday to dewinterize. We got everything set up except the water softener which we forgot at home.

We were doing this to have the three oldest grandchildren out – twin girls, 11, and a boy, 7. We picked them up at lunch after a soccer game on Saturday, ate some take out pizza, then went to the camper. It was much colder than the forecast had shown when we set it up, so I felt bad we couldn’t do the bike riding we wanted to do. A windchill of low 40s just didn’t appeal to me. We left the kittens at home, thinking an introduction to both the motorhome and three children would be a bit much! We did have a lot of fun even in the cold temps. There was a nice playground, a sand spot at the edge of the lake to build sand castles, and a nice fire pit. We made layered green chili chicken enchiladas in a Dutch oven and campfire biscuits on Saturday night. Sunday morning had monkey bread in the motorhome oven along with eggs and fruit. They said they wanted to do it again, so I call that a success!

We picked up the kittens after we dropped off the kids, and they adjusted faster than I expected. Luna was thrilled we could open up the screen door. Don’t worry; behind the grill is a screen!

I didn’t get a picture of Minnie because she was either running around like crazy or hiding out, her two favorite things to do.

The weather was so absolutely gorgeous while we were packing up on Monday that we decided to stay an extra day. We road our bikes around the lake and some of the nearby trails, soaked up sun, and generally had a wonderful start to the camping season.

See how pretty our “backyards was?

Once we finally got packed up, we decided to drive to Cedar Rapids to get the motorhome washed. It hasn’t had a bath since July, and it was in dire need! We just don’t have a place to wash it ourselves, so we went to a newer truck wash, AFCS Truck Wash. Astonishingly no one was in line in front of us! They did a good job, and it was well worth the $75 it cost. As we drove out, there were 2 motorhomes and a semi truck in line behind us, so we really were lucky.

Next trip might be Mother’s Day, or it might be a warmer weather overnight with grandkids at a different campground. Time will tell. We take off for the summer right after Memorial Day – YEAH!

 

 

Kittens, restaurants, and shopping

I am striving to be more frequent in my posts. I hope it lasts!

Luna and Minnie are still settling in. Minnie, in particular, still has a tendency to hide whenever she sees our legs. She is perfectly happy to get petted if she is on her cat tower, but she is on the floor and we walk toward her, she gets spooked. I actually wonder if she has been kicked before. Cats can have long memories, even of accidents. Thank goodness we got the two together since they play a lot together. They wouldn’t be nearly as happy with the limited play they get from us, though we do play with them about an hour a day. They are particularly fond of feather sticks.

They do love the cat tower

These are their normal locations. Luna loves to sit on top, surveying her world. Minnie prefers to look at the world from her safe spot. I wish I could show the color of Luna’s eyes; they are a deep golden color that is truly stunning.

It feels so very odd to be going to restaurants. We spent so many months doing drive through and carry-out I keep forgetting  we can actually go into restaurants. So far we have eaten at a couple of Mexican restaurants (with margaritas!), a steak place, and a few breakfast places. We haven’t done any “fine dining” yet, mostly because we don’t have many open where I live. So many restaurants closed or went to greatly reduced menus! Of course that would also mean putting on slacks instead of the jeans I live in, so it is a mixed blessing.

We also have done some shopping, the type where you actually go into a store and look around, not just order online. I bought a bunch of new bedding for,our spare bedrooms plus new towels for the guest bath. Today we went to Trader Joe’s to stock up on some of their specialties. I adore their coconut shrimp, ginger biscuits (British cookies), biscotti (nice small ones that are a treat instead of a complete meal), plus some of their sweets. We can now use our own reusable bags there and at our local grocery stores, a real plus. I am so tired of the thousands of plastic bags we have accumulated. Yes, I take the plastic to the recycle center, but I still prefer the reusable bags for ease of use.

I have been doing some quilt piecing too. I have 2/3 of the main part of a king sized quilt completed. However I can’t find the pieces for the rest of it! I am going to have to bite the bullet and clean my sewing studio completely. I know those pieces are around, but I have so much miscellaneous stuff laying around that I can’t find them! So that is tomorrow’s job. Pray for me!

 

Not much going on

I just don’t post as much when we aren’t traveling. I actually haven’t been doing much, giving in to a really bad back probably more than I should have. I am now back in PT and taking acetaminophen three times a day. It has helped a lot. I also got a Nursal brand e-stim unit. It helps a lot to loosen sore muscles that have just been overwhelmed with pain.

The big news is we have two new kittens in the house. Luna (black) and Minerva (tabby) came home with us two days ago. They are sisters, six months old, and they are still restricted to our bedroom and bathroom until they get a bit more comfortable though. We decided to call Minerva by a nickname – Minnie. She is just a tiny little thing just over 4 pounds. Her bigger sister is at an average weight of 5.5 pounds. They are really well socialized, very healthy (our vet has already done a checkup), fully immunized, and they have already been chipped. They spent three months in a foster home, so their behavior has been very good.

Luna (left) and Minerva aka Minnie (right)

They each slept on the bed some last night, though they also decided to play with the blind cords at 4:30 in the morning! We haven’t had kittens in a long time, but we knew what we were getting into. That included interrupted sleep.

I have also been playing with my sewing machine some. I ordered a Sew Steady inset for the sewing machine table I keep in the motorhome. Then I started thinking about using that inset as a stand along table for when I go to retreats or just want to sew outside. The inset has no legal, so I asked Kevin for some 3D printed adjustable legs, and he delivered!

Nice big table!
Individual leg

Each leg slips onto the suction cup and has adjustable feet to accommodate different surface heights. I love them! I am now going to out the small, old wobbly table that came with the machine into the storage room some place.

I have also been cooking some. I have watched way too many seasons of The Great British Baking Show, and I wanted a lovely desert for Easter. I practiced making a pavlova, and it was wonderful! I even made a home made lemon curd to go with it, but some of my grandkids got sick so no big Easter meal. My son Mark did come up, but he doesn’t really do deserts, so we just had little pastry cases with some lemon curd. Well, and a pot roast, carrots, and potatoes.

We have been planning our summer trip. We will leave the day after Memorial Day, heading to Hamilton, MO where Missouri Star Quilt Company is headquartered. They open in early May after 14-15 months of closure due to COVID, and I am looking forward to it. We will have 2 nights at the campground which gives us one full day in the town. Then we are going to head south to the Bartlesville and Tulsa, OK area. We hope to spend a couple of days at Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve, a treat we both remember from our childhood. I also want to see the Philbrook Museum of Art and its trove of impressionist paintings. We don’t know how long we will stay in the general area, but probably about a week. We have a Corps of Engineers site reserved at Copan Lake for the Woolaroc visit, then we hope to stay 2-3 days at a Boondocker’s Welcome site nearer Tulsa. After that we don’t have any firm plans, but intend on staying in the northern Oklahoma/southern Kansas/eastern Colorado areas for a few weeks.  The next firm commitment is Cody, WY for a FMCA Diesel Club chapter meeting for a few days during the Independence Day holiday. Then off to Devil’s Tower followed by Gillette, WY for the FMCA convention. Then it is to Badlands NP for dark sky photography around the new moon. We intend on being back to Iowa sometime in August, but nothing firm.

We both finished our COVID vaccination series 3 weeks ago. It sure feels good to be back in society again. We are shopping and eating at restaurants again, a lovely treat. Hopefully we can put this nasty disease in our nationwide rear view mirror soon.

I am off to sew. I still need to finish a quilt for our bed, and I need to make a little bag to put the legs for the Sew Steady inset.