Author: canoepam@yahoo.com

Finally finished a quilt and back on the road

A good friend of one of my sons had a baby in April. Knowing this was coming, I started a quilt for the baby in February. Then we decided to rush moving and buying the motorhome, and the baby quilt didn’t get done on time. 😢 Little Roman (it turned out to be a boy) was born in April, and he just got his quilt yesterday. It did come out cute though.

The pattern is called Irish Chain. The parents chose not to find out the gender, and they didn’t have a theme or color picked out, so I went with the simple two color quilt. The colors aren’t true in the picture; the red is a brick red and the lighter color is a creamy golden.

I quilted it with a variegated King Tut thread with red, brown, green, and cream.

I used a feather stitch on the binding. I really like the look of this.

We also took off today for a trip! We are headed to Ely, Minnesota tomorrow. Tonight we are staying part way there at the Hinckley Grand Casino campground. It is a really nice campground with asphalt pads and patios but with grass and trees or so, but nice. We had dinner at the Casino buffet because it was easy. Food was standard “nice” buffet, but not great.

We will stay in Ely until Friday morning when we gradually work our way to the FMCA rally in Gillette, WY. Then off to Hot Springs, SD for a few days. We haven’t decided what to do after that.

I did drive the motorhome well over half the trip so far. We stopped for a CAT scale weighing to see how heavy we were. The front axle was just barely under the 12,000 pound capacity with full tanks of both diesel and water. The back axle still has 800pounds of capacity, and we are pretty full of “stuff” so I feel very comfortable with the residual capacity. Getting a real axle weight means we could adjust the tires appropriately for the weight they are carrying. The front tires were 118 pounds each, so they got lowered to 110 pounds. The rear tires were about the same, and they got brought down to 100 pounds. Wow but does it handle better! Much less tiring to drive. The motorhome is still more tiring the the truck and trailer, but it was certainly better than the first 1000 miles we drove.

Getting the hang of this

We have now been at Pleasant Creek Recreation Area for 8 nights. It was lovely. Some of my kids came out a few times for dinner and boating, and we were close enough to home to pick up a bunch of things we needed for the motorhome. I made two racks of beef ribs in the Instant Pot one night that my son in law finished on the grill. We also grilled burgers one night. It has been nice!

One of the things I have gotten organized is my sewing area. I tried using the machine on the dining table, but that just didn’t work. It was the wrong height, and the chair just wasn’t right there. I brought my little Gadget table from home, and it is perfect sitting in front of the TV. I will put my supplies on one end of the sofa, and the machine can travel on the sofa using the seat belt there.

Notice the little Ott light on the left and the purple Sip and Snip on the right. I love both of them! The Ott light provides just enough light from the back of the machine to make sewing much easier. It just sits wherever I want it. The Sip and Snip has a big cup holder and a trash bag for thread and other items. It is clamped on the edge of the table. I not only finished a baby quilt top but I also made some bowl cozies for the coach using some Native American pot fabric I bought in Arizona near Ft. Huachuca. I slightly rounded the corners of these, and they were easier to sew that sharp corners.

The site here is really lovely. There was hardly anyone here until the weekend. Three fourths of the sites accept reservations, and they are pretty empty during the week. We took one of the 7 non-reservation sites which were luckily not occupied.

The last picture shows the motorhome in a much truer color than the other one I posted. Most Tiffin paint schemes have black on the top. The lighter red should be somewhat cooler. Besides we like bright colors!

We are headed back home today. We won’t head out again until a couple of days after the 4th when we see friends in Ely, MN for a week then head west to Gillette, WY for a FMCA rally. It will be fun!

Back in Iowa in the motorhome

We left Alabama intending on staying at Cuivre State Park in Missouri, basically between St. Louis and Hannibal. We got there, but we didn’t fit! The park website said we did, and the reviews on RVParkReview.com said we would, but that must have been before they stopped trimming the trees above and next to the road. We actually scratched the coach, something that made me very sad. We then headed back north, but we couldn’t find a nice campground with openings. The campgrounds in the Hannibal don’t have good reviews, and Mark Twain Lake, a great place, was just too far off the road. We ended up staying in the Hannibal Walmart parking lot, running the generator pretty solid because it was so hot. I didn’t feel too bad because everyone else was doing the same thing!

We stopped at Center Point, Iowa, about 45 miles from home, to dump the tanks at the Travel Plaza. After we finished, we realized we were within 5 miles of one of our favorite camping spots – Pleasant Creek State Recreation  Area. We decided to stop there for 6 days. Luckily it was Monday so the few no-reservation campsites had openings. It is a huge pull through site with 50 amp service at the princely cost of $16 a night. We decided to stay here until Sunday morning.

It was miserably hot on Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday were rainy and hot. My daughter, her husband and son, and my second son came last night for dinner. I used the Instant Pot to make pulled pork (cut into 1 pound chunks, use vegetable broth, garlic, and onions as liquid, pressure cook 70 minutes, natural pressure release after 10 minutes – delicious). I also made my daughter’s favorite chocolate cherry dump cake. I usually make it in a Dutch Oven, but the rain put a kabosh on that. I made it in a 6×10 baking pan I had. Put 2 cans of high quality cherry pie filling in the pan, spread about 1/2 a package of chocolate cake mix, and apply liquid margarine in a cross hatch pattern. I baked in the convection oven for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Today it was absolutely lovely most of the day with mild temperatures and just a bit of wind off and on. I tried to sew just to see where things would work best. I have already decided I don’t like seeing at the dinette table, so tomorrow we will pick up my little portable sewing table and see how that works.

In summary, it was awfully nice to have a comfortable place to really try out the coach. We are close enough to home we can pick up things, and we have packed a number of things we will be wanting to take with us.

We are ready for the road!

We finished our 2 day RV driving class today. It was very helpful. The saleswoman at the dealer had done some quick instruction, but we found out quickly that it didn’t work for all situations. The instructor (Jimmy Johnson from RVDrivingschool.com) showed us all kinds of methods to doing turns, backing, and just moving around in traffic. Both of us feel much more confident in traffic now, so I think it was well worth the money.

One nice thing about being with a local is finding all kinds of good places to eat. Yesterday at lunch we ate at Fiesta Mexican in Tuscumbia, AL which was very tasty. Last night we ate at Swamp John in Florence, AL, a hole in the wall fish place. I had a nice meal of fried catfish, fried okra, and hush puppies along with sweet tea – a truly southern meal like I grew up with. Today at lunch we ate at Smokin’ on the Boulevard in Florence, AL with the best smoked chicken I had ever had. Wow! A whole smoked chicken was $10, and it was worth every penny. Kevin got a smoked pork loin that was also good. We were disappointed they were out of brisket and ribs, but we can try them if we ever get here again. I ended up buying a second chicken that I will piece apart and freeze for later.

The motorhome is doing great. We closed the bedroom area off and ran the generator so we could have the air conditioner in the “living room”. The dahs air is cold, but there is a lot of space to cool down, so it is common for motorhomes to drive with their generators running when AC is needed. It was well into the mid 90s with a dew point of 70+, so I was quite pleased at how comfortable the coach was.

We head back to Iowa tomorrow morning. We plan on staying at a state park in Missouri tomorrow night then being home on Monday. It turns our Mississippi only gives 7 day temp tags, so we won’t be legal after that. It will be an expensive trip to the DMV!

More about the new motorhome

We made our first drive in the motorhome successfully. The Jeep followed behind us just fine as a “toad”. My toe was killing me since I stubbed it badly on the raised section of the floor by my side of the bed, so Kevin drove here from the dealer. I did drive about 20 miles with the saleswoman we had though including rural highway, town, and interstate so I am not worried. We are at a small campground in Tuscumbia, AL until Sunday morning.

We can successfully hitch and unhitch the Jeep using a Blue Ox brand tow bar and a AirForce One air brake system (installed on the Jeep). The instructions for setting the transmission correctly in the Jeep are complicated enough that Kevin wrote them on an index card. We bought this particular Grand Cherokee (Trail Hawk model) because it could be towed “four down” – all four wheels on the ground – but it takes some fussing with. The OTA television antenna works fine. We didn’t bring enough cabling to try the cable TV at the campsite. I even ran three loads of laundry in the washer and dryer! I really like the Splendide brand washer and dryer we have.  The guy doing our PDI (Pre Delivery Inspection) warned me that they took a long time to wash and dry, but it wasn’t terrible. The washer on PermaPress took 1 hour 28 minutes after I added a second rinse, and my big washer at home takes 58 minutes for the same thing. The dryer certainly is slower, but I dried 5 pair of Kevin’s heavy jeans in about 100 minutes. The dryer only runs on 110 v instead of the 220v at home, so I wasn’t surprised it took longer. The washer and dryer are also smaller. The five heavy jeans was a full load whereat home I wash 7 pair at once.

I even used the convection microwave to make brownies. The oven itself walks you through the button pushes which was handy since it took a series of them. The brownies turned out nicely though. I also used the convection oven to roast potatoes for dinner and to brown the boneless country ribs I cooked in the Instant Pot. I am definitely “RVing”, not “camping”!

Not everything is good though. Lily is not happy with me. She has a tendency to hide under the bed, and she hasn’t come out for her normal lap time with me. Kevin says it is because I didn’t bring a lap quilt for her to lay on, and I hope that’s what it is. I was the one who put her in her crate a lot on the trip though, so I worry she is mad.

Tomorrow and Saturday we have an instructor from RVDrivingSchool.com, Jimmy Johnson, coming out to take us through our paces. There will be a total of 12 hours of instruction, and we should be very confident with driving the 40 foot beast when we are done. I have no trouble remembering his name. It is the same as an Oklahoma State University football coach when I went there who later became coach of the Dallas Cowboys. The coach Jimmy Johnson was an ass, but I have heard good things about this instructor. Guess I won’t hold his name against him. 😁

 

We own a motorhome!

We headed to Sherman’s RV in Sherman, Mississippi on Sunday. We made it to Holly Springs, MS before we gave up. Eleven hours of travel, and I hit my limit! Monday morning we made the last 45 miles, and we bought our new Tiffin RED 37PA. I love it, but it has been tedious getting it ready. The dealer was late getting started, and a few things still needed to be done. We also had our Jeep Grand Cherokee modified to be towed behind the motorhome, and that also took longer than planned. Sigh. We still don’t have everything done, so we are staying a second night in the dealer’s full hookup site. It is just a gravel parking spot, but it looks out on a lovely pond.

Here are some pictures:

Living room has a sofa air bed and a movable recliner
Lots of televisions, and even a fake fireplace which is a good electric heater.
We got a table and chairs instead of a dinette.
Bedroom with a RV king. It is 6” narrower than a regular king.
Really nice bathroom with big shower and two sinks.
It is much brighter than this picture taken under overcast clouds.

We eventually got all the gear unpacked we brought from the travel trailer. Lots of room left! Lily seems to be adjusting well.

Sold the travel trailer!

We just kept lowering the price until someone bit. We were willing to go lower than we could have gotten if we had more time because we want to spend time traveling instead of staying at home and trying to sell a camper. It still wasn’t a bad price, and the new owner was very happy. He drove all the way from the Nevada/California line to get it. In a way it was sad because we had so many good times in it. We still have to sell the pickup, but we have time for that later.

We are now planning on what we will take to pick up the new motorhome. Kevin kept thinking all the things we needed to live in the motorhome for two weeks would fit in the back of the SUV, but he has realized that just won’t work. We will rent a little U-Haul trailerso we can be comfortable while still leaving poor Lily some room. She loved traveling in the SUV when we moved here, probably because she can see out of all the windows. It is about 700 miles, and we can do it in one long day.

As for the house, we have put up pretty much all the blinds finally! Both guest bedrooms are pretty much put together. They are smaller than my old guest rooms, as is the dining area, so we gave away quite a bit of furniture. None of the kids are interested in things like china cabinets, though I had one take our big dining room table. We bought a much smaller expandable table and a very small buffet/hutch at IKEA. It fits much better with my modern decorating style.

We have also worked a lot on the outside of the house. The yard is odd shaped, and it needs a lot of water. We tried some different sprinklers, and we ended up with a tractor type that follows a hose. Luckily there are outside hose bibs on both sides of the house so we can water the entire yard in one day. It has been so hot and dry I am afraid the “seams” of our sod has died. They weren’t pushed well down onto the dirt. The seams will eventually fill in, but we will have to be careful with watering.

Since I don’t have any house pictures, here is one of Lily being her adorable self. She cover s her eyes like that all the time. You can just barely see her pipe cleaner and feather play toys.

New house, being busy, and not wanting to do much

It has been almost a month since the last post. We got our furniture finally, though some of it was in bad shape. The folks who packed the first truck, the one that arrived last, did not use enough blankets, and some of my wooden furniture was scratched and damaged. I was NOT a happy camper. We worked first to get the kitchen, bedroom, and master bedroom set up. Then we worked on the kitchen. We got the new range (a multi-fuel Samsung – gas burners and electric oven that can be used as one big unit or subdivided into two) plus some great storage for the pots and pans.

It is called a Rev-a-shelf. It holds all my pots, the lids, and left enough space in the cabinet for my Kitchenaid mixer! I still want some more pull out shelves, especially in the bathroom that has deep cabinets, but those are on hold. We also got the blinds we ordered. We bought two at first, to make sure we like them. We did, and then ordered them for the rest of the house. These have cloth strips holding the cords, and I like the look. Oh, and notice the dirt mountain just visible behind the blinds? The first week we were here the developer started moving a huge amount of dirt from other construction sites nearby. This pile is probably 15 feet high and 50 or more feet long. Luckily I know it won’t stay since there will be a Road right through the middle of it in the next year or so. However all the trucks were amazing noisy, though my grandsons were entranced.

However, after all the big stuff needed to live was done, I have found it hard to get motivated. I say each day I am going to get X, Y, and Z done, but it just doesn’t happen. I admit my back is giving me fits, but I think it is actually a response to just too much happening.

Oh, and the motorhome is built and is either at the dealer or getting there soon. They will do an inspection, and we will arrive in Sherman, MS on 11 June to start the inspection and instruction how to operate it plus they will modify the Jeep Grand Cherokee to work as a toad. We then need to drive it to not far into AL for driving lessons! Lots of people just drive off in a big motorhome, but we though it would be much better to get driving instruction. It will be two 6 hour days, and we both will do it (together). This is what is getting exciting! Of course we are also need to sell the current trailer, and that is taking more time than I thought it would. Here in the Midwest there just aren’t as many people interested in this manufacturer. It isn’t like we need the money from the trailer to buy the motorhome, but we don’t intend on being here a lot and want it gone! We can’t sell the truck until the trailer is sold, and we will use the cash from the truck to pay off the Jeep. Lots nicer to be back to just one payment – the mortgage.

You really can’t go home again

Mostly I have been consumed with moving and unpacking. My back is killing me, and I have been falling asleep by 9:00 each night. However I did take a few days to attend my 45th high school reunion last weekend. I had a fine time, reconnecting with people I literally haven’t seen since 1973. I never lived at home after my freshman year in college, and I went to a different college than most of my friends. We had just lost touch until Facebook came along. One of my friends started to “collect” people from HS, and through him I reconnected with a number of them too.

Now to the not so fun. I expected more people I knew to be there, and I was disappointed that some who lived close didn’t come. I met lots of people I knew by name, but none of my special friends. I also think that a lot of people my age must have lost their hearing since the music was so loud I had a pounding headache by 9:00 when I finally gave up to head to my hotel room. I just felt I didn’t have much in common with the vast majority of people there. I hadn’t lived in the state for many years, had a different type of job, and obviously different political leanings as I discovered from casual conversation.summary: I enjoyed myself, but I doubt I will go to another.

Now back to unpacking!

We own a house again

We were “homeless” for a few days between selling the Utah house on Monday and closing on the new Iowa house yesterday (Thirsday). Of course the bank account looked pretty nice for a few days LOL! We had hoped to leave for Iowa today, but weather came in to delay us. The truck packing got delayed for the same reason, so we are still at the KOA in Salt Lake City. We do plan on taking off tomorrow morning, hopefully about 12 hours behind the weather.

The house closing in Iowa was a mess. I really owe my son and daughter in law a lot for dealing with so much of it. I have never had a sale be so much trouble. We are literally finding things things wrong with the house about an hour ahead of closing!  The builder’s tradesmen are obviously not careful, and they added some more dents and bumps to the house since the walkthrough on Wednesday. We did get it all finished up, though we gave up on getting their cleaners to do a good job. I just hired another crew to come in Monday.

Still trying to get some sewing done too. I would love to have a baby quilt top completed by the time I have the quilting machine set up. The baby is due in May, and this quilt just might not make it in time.