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| My beautiful daughter and granddaughter! |
We pulled into our driveway at our home in Oswego and parked Bentley by 12:45 pm. We quickly got things set up, slides out and then gathered up sheets and towels to begin the laundry process and then we had a bite to eat. Once lunch was over I ran to the Post Office to pick up our mail, then by my Aunt's to pick up a picture I had taken to her. She recently moved into her new home and she was checking out the picture to see if she might want to use it, but decided not to. Then I needed to make a run to the grocery store for a few necessities so we could eat the next couple of days. I felt like I hit the ground running and never stopped until I finally had a chance to set down about 9:30 and I could barely keep my eyes open.
As I mentioned in the last post, we received an offer on the house and after some negotiation we have settled on an agreed price. This evening we met with the potential buyers and signed a contract for the sale of our house. We feel very blessed that this has worked out so well for both us and the young couple who want to acquire our home. They've looked at a number of locations, both in Oswego and neighboring communities, and just kept coming back to ours. All of the extra time and effort we have put in to it has been worth it. We really did lots of things to make sure it was as nice as possible for someone moving in and they wouldn't have much, if anything to do.
After they left, Misti stopped by and we visited with her for a couple of hours or more. It was nice to have that time with her. Tomorrow Misti, grand-daughter Haleigh and I are going to Pawhuska, OK with friends Holly and her daughter Haley, and our Pastor's wife Tish, her mother Nancy and daughter Kelsey. It's going to be a fun time.
Saturday, October 21, 2017 - Pawhuska, OK - The Mercantile
I was up early this morning - but not early enough to get a walk in. After showering, eating breakfast and leaving the house by 6:45 a.m., I stopped at Misti's to pick her up, then we drove a few blocks to pick up Holly and her daugher Haley. Our next stop was east of Altamont to pick up Tish, Nancy and Kelsey and our final stop was in Altamont to pick up my granddaughter Haleigh at her dad's. Then off we went. It took us about 2 hours to reach Pawhuska, despite the 2 or 3 stops I had to make on the way for potty breaks.
As we drove down the main street in Pawhuska we could tell where the Mercantile was located by the number of cars parked alongside the road and the line of people we could see forming a line outside waiting to get into "The Pioneer Woman's" restaurant within the Mercantile.
Kelsey took a selfie of our group before crossing the street where we found the entrance to the Mercantile. By the way the building to the left of the mercantile said Triangle on it. This building was in the shape of a triangle!
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| Misti thought she wanted to ride this bucking flamingo! What a video that would have been! |
While there were many nice things, since I am in the process of purging, I do not need anymore stuff; however I did buy a t-shirt and one of The Pioneer Woman magazines. I've been looking for one of the magazines at Wal-mart but they never seem to have them in stock. While I will probably never purchase another one I was curious to see one and I'll pass it around to my sisters and daughter if they want to take a look as well so the money spent doesn't go to waste.
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| Looking out over the Mercantile as we were walking upstairs to the Dessert Section! |
After looking over the Mercantile and making our purchases we took the stairs to the upper level where many they make the various bakery items that are also on display for purchase. I bought a package of 3 sticky buns that I will take home to Dean. I passed on buying anything for myself.
Haleigh and I played a mean game of checkers while the others enjoyed their desserts. She took off at the start of the game with a vengence and I had to get my game face on and take over - finally winning the match but not without a fight to the end! Lol! I used to play lots of checkers with my Nana when I spent time with her. I guess it paid off.
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| Haleigh and her Nana! |
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| I love this picture of my daughter Misti, my granddaughter Haleigh and me! |
We took several more pictures and then went back downstairs and left the Mercantile. After dropping our packages at the car, we walked to many of the other shops in the immediate downtown area.
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| In front of one of the other retail shops in downtown Pawhuska. |
While many were nice and I enjoyed looking at their displays, I just was not in shopping mode. While checking out with my two purchases at the Mercantile I had asked about getting tickets so we could visit "The Lodge" where Ree Drummond's, "The Pioneer Woman" Food Network show is filmed. While the Lodge was beautiful, what I enjoyed the most was the drive there. The skies were overcast and grey. I believe it really enhanced the beautiful scenery as we drove along these rolling hills of prairie grass. Since I was driving I did not take any pictures but believe me it was a gorgeous site to see the grass blowing in the winds, the clouds showing off their shadows as they passed over the hills and valleys, seeing the herds of wild horses and the cattle strewn throughout the prairie. So very beautiful!
The view from "The Lodge" was gorgeous and of course we had to check out the dogs. Walter is the only one I knew from the show so I snapped a few pictures of him and my granddaughter Haleigh loved him.
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| View from "The Lodge" looking out over Drummond Ranch. |
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| Can you tell it was a little windy here at "The Lodge"? |
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| Haleigh & Walter |
Here's a few pictures from inside "The Lodge" where "The Pioneer Woman" show on Food Network is filmed. Recognize any of it?
What a pantry:
Some pictures from one of the guest rooms in the Lodge:
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| They said the bed was really comfy!! |
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| and the chairs were too! |
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| One of the ladies hosting at the lodge took this picture for us. |
Once we left the Lodge we headed back to Pawhuska where we selected "El Vallarta" as our late lunch of choice. We had such a good time and the food was excellent. What a great group of people to spend the day with, enjoying many laughs, pictures and fellowship.
Our drive home was as enjoyable as the ride to Pawhuska although we were all a little more subdued, worn out, full and I think a few might even have tried to close their eyes to get a little shut eye!
What a great day was had by all!
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Today would have been my Mama's 79th birthday. In February she will have been gone from this earth for 25 years, but we know she is rejoicing in heaven and that makes it so much easier - knowing we will see her again.
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| This picture was celebrating my Grandpa Stapleton's birthday, my mom's dad - that's my mom on the right with the big smile. She had a beautiful smile! |
This morning Dean and I were not as rushed so we took our morning walk through Riverside Park but this girl failed to pay attention to the time. Looking back on our workout that I record on "Map My Walk" each day, we walked at 8:14 a.m. We typically walk at 7:00, so when we returned I made my breakfast, took my time eating it, reading emails and Facebook. When I looked up I realized it was almost 10:00 am and church starts at 10:45. I ran to get ready and walked out the door about 10:15. Since it had rained hard in the night I knew we had received a few inches of rain. The roads to the church get pretty muddy after a rain and I knew I was running late so I decided to take a road Dean thought might be a little quicker. I headed east out of Oswego to 100th Road (where Claythorne Hunting Lodge) is located. This allows me to drive on paved roads all but the last 4 miles or so. I drove 2 miles north on gravel roads after leaving the payment then turned back west for the last 2 miles to Sherman - and ran into a road covered in water. Well....I turned around in the road and went back to the next intersection then headed south, oh no.....another road covered in water and much worse than the previous one. I backed up to the intersection and took the same road east one mile, and headed south again thinking I might find a road to the west that I could get through and then head back north - but every road on the west was also covered with water. I finally just drove back into Oswego and as I drove into town it was 11:00. By the time I drove through town and north, then back east to the church I figured I would miss almost the entire service so I just drove to the grocery store to get something for our lunch and went back to the house. I hated missing church as I enjoy it so much but it was pretty silly of me to take a new road after it rained like it did last night, one I haven't been on in years, if ever. Lesson learned!
By the time I got home from the grocery store and put away the groceries it was almost time to head to my youngest sister Jody's house for our Sunday afternoon get together. We take turns the first four Sunday's of each month - being the oldest I take the first Sunday, and it works down through the four of us to Jody on the fourth. We do not meet on the 5th Sunday. I received birthday cards from my two youngest sisters - Crystal and Jody but Cindy said she would give me hers tomorrow because today was not my birthday! HAHA Jody made two desserts and I got to choose which one we would have since my birthday is tomorrow. I chose pumpkin dump cake and it was DELICIOUS! The other choice was a strawberry cake and while it sounded good too, it's just the season for pumpkin.
After I got home I worked on some paperwork and catching the blog up in Bentley. Dean is building Misti a headboard for her bed and he worked on it both yesterday and today. Misti will stop by later to take a look at what he has done so far. When she showed up later, they discussed how Dean would prepare the pallet boards. They decided he would stain the pallet boards in different shades and place them on a blackened board so any gaps would show up as a dark background. I think it is going to turn out quite nice.
Monday, October 23, 2017
I woke up pretty early this morning and it was really cool in Bentley. I cranked up the furnace to warm things up and had my two cups of coffee. Dean got up a short time later and wished me a Happy Birthday. Earlier this year we decided we would quit buying each other birthday cards. It seems such a waste of money to just throw it away since our life is now all about purging - not adding things to the RV.
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| I took this on our walk this morning - our shadows were following along! This is part of Kamp Siesta, the City of Oswego's RV Park. |
After breakfasts and showers we decided to drive to Joplin and have lunch, then run several errands. Since it was my birthday I chose Longhorn Steakhouse for lunch. I ordered the Parmesean Crusted Chicken Breast and I was in heaven. This was better than getting a birthday card! Wow, it was delicious and I can't wait to try and find a recipe that I can use to make this at home. After lunch we stopped at several stores with a final stop at Wal-Mart to pick up a few things before heading back home.
I forgot to mention Cindy called me when she got off work around 12:30 or so to see if I was at home - she was going to bring my card by to me - guess what she missed my birthday too - so she's going to bring it by tomorrow! Lol!
Since we had a big dinner we just had a simple sandwich for supper and spent the rest of the evening watching TV - mainly Dancing With the Stars.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
After walking this morning, I spent sometime cleaning Bentley this morning and moving some things back into the house and then bringing some other things out as I try to figure out exactly what we want to keep with us. We will keep some things in storage - mostly kitchen items and Dean's STUFF, and I will be marking them carefully so I can change things out if needed. My hope is that after the next 5 months I'll have a better of idea of what I need to go ahead and leave at home, OR I may find that things I should have brought and were left behind will be added when we are back here in April. Overall, I think we are doing pretty good limiting what we bring with us.
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| Beautiful maples in our City Park on our walk this morning. |
This afternoon I completed the blog post from last week during our casual campout. I'm trying to get the blog caught up so I can do shorter ones in the next few weeks as I work in changing from a part-time to full-time blog.
My grandson Logan is attending Labette Community College. He enjoys music and is taking a couple of music classes. Tonight they are having a concert so Dean and I, my daughter Misti and granddaughter Haleigh will be attending. In honor of my birthday my son and his family, and Logan will meet us all at Shredder's BBQ Restaurant for dinner at 4:30 prior to the concert. It was great to spend time with all of them and have the opportunity to visit and catch up with what everyone is doing. I intended to ask the waitress to take a picture and then promptly forgot. Once the food arrived - well, if you know me and my food - you don't want to get in the way, especially when I am hungry (and I was) - even though it was only a salad! It was a big salad with some great pulled pork on top and bleu cheese dressing - that I added a little BBQ sauce to give it a little more flavor!
Afterwards, we drove around Parsons a bit and out to Wal-mart where we walked around inside for about 20 minutes or so before heading to the college for the concert that was scheduled to begin at 7pm. There were only 7 people besides the instructor who played either piano, drums or guitar but they all did an excellent job and I really enjoyed it. There were quite a few people who attended as well.
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| It was Halloween themed so everyone were some type of mask/costume. Logan is in the middle with a white mask on - right in front of the guy standing |
Afterwards we stopped at Logan's apartment so Haleigh and Dean could take a tour, before heading back home to Oswego.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
When I am in town I attend a women's group/Bible study on Wednesday mornings and that is where I headed this morning. It's always fun to be around other women with like minds (and good food)! We had a wonderful two hours together visiting, praying for those in need, enjoying a devotional and having a wonderful dessert, and today it was - chocolate cake. I know, I know it's not on my diet, but I ate a small piece, and I did not eat breakfast.
When I got home I noticed I had a message from my good friend Carol wanting to know if I wanted to have lunch one day this week. I responded today at noon would work great for me so we met at our local Mexican restaurant - Mi Pueblo. We never have enough time to visit and catch up with each other and before we knew it she needed to head back to work.
This afternoon I pulled all of my kitchen dishes, pots and pans, etc. that I will not be taking in Bentley out of the cabinets, as well as everything out of all of the drawers so that I can begin packing these to store.
I called my sister and a friend who I know take some local papers to see if they had any I might be able to use for packing my dishes. Cindy (my sister) had a few but not enough for all the wrapping I'll need to do, so I'll wait until I get the others and hopefully will get all this packing done soon. I also took all of the remaining things out of our bathroom cabinets and drawers. I still need to sort through that an decide what to keep, besides three closets. That's about all I have left now.
Dean is eventually going to build a desk/table in our rig but not until we return from Texas in April. In the meantime I needed a bit more storage for a few files that I want to take with us. I had a two door filing cabinet inside so I emptied it and moved it out to Bentley and took the small table Dean had made to the garage to store.
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| This is the table I took out. Dean made this for me. I wanted something narrow next to the loveseat for me to put my coffee cup on, with a drawer to hold pens, remote controls, etc. and storage below for some books, etc. At the time he built it we had our table and chairs setting where four people could make use of it. Since then, we turned the table and only have two chairs. Now the table is being used only as a desk. |
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| This is what we put in place of the table above. |
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| You can see how the tubs hold smaller items. Since we have more of this type of thing with us than when we were only traveling part-time I think it will work well until Dean gets the new desk built. |
The bottom drawer will be my file cabinet and I used two tubs in the top drawer of the filing cabinet to hold things like office supplies, pens, paper clips, scissiors, small ruler, stapler, etc. and underneath the tubs I had room for envelopes, label maker, etc. It will work out fine until he gets the desk built, and I loved that I was able to make use of what I have in the meantime - that's always a plus!
We grilled some burgers and a few sweet potato fries for dinner and then chilled the rest of the evening. While Dean watched TV I caught up reading some blogs and working on my own.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
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| The beautiful sunrise as we walked in the park this morning. |
After being so cold yesterday morning when we walked we were surprised how warm it was this morning. We definitely overdressed but managed to get in our 2.5 miles.
After breakfast Dean went to the garage and I spent most of the day working on redoing some files that needed to go in Bentley while we travel. It's something I've wanted to get done and it felt good to get it out of the way.
After I got things cleaned up, Dean grilled some shrimp in garlic butter & lemon and I made some herb rice and broccoli for supper. Oh wow, it was really good. First time we've ever grilled shrimp ourselves and can't wait to have it again!
About the time Dean brought the shrimp in from the grill, the wind picked up and a cold front moved in - amazing how the temperatures dropped so quickly. It was warm all day long and just like that it changed. Brrrr! I'm not ready for cold weather yet.
I caught up reading all of my RV blogs this evening while Dean watched some TV. Quite a bit was accomplished today just not much to write about.
Friday, October 27, 2017
Well, it was still COLD this morning - but we did our walk anyway and managed to get in a little over 2.5 miles. It's amazing how much a brisk walk can warm you up.
I decided to treat Dean to a special breakfast this morning and made breakfast burritoes, using low carb tortillas so I could have one too. They were so good! After doing dishes, showering and straightening things in Bentley I headed in to the house to do a little work before a lunch date I have later with friends.
I have several boxes I will use to pack my kitchen dishes, pots and pans, etc. that will not be going in Bentley but I want to keep "when" we decide to come off the road. The boxes were still folded flat so I went about getting them unfolded, shaped and taped.
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| After I folded them. |
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| One of the full boxes of dishes. |
And here's most of what's left to pack from inside the house. A few of these things will be given away, and I'm leaving some of it for the new owners - only what they want of course!
Once that was finished, I went through a few of the kitchen items to make sure there wasn't anything else I should move to Bentley. A couple of days ago when it was a little cooler I wanted to make some hot tea and realized I needed my tea kettle, so I added it and then realized I might want some ice tea when it warms up and I didn't have a pitcher so added that. If I find we don't use some things as much as I think, I can always put them in storage when we return to Oswego in April.
A little before noon I left to have lunch with my friends Linda and Peggy. Linda offered to fix lunch for us at her house. She made a delicious chicken taco soup, served with cheese and corn ships. We followed that up with pumpkin cranberry bread which was equally delicious. I always have such a great time with these two ladies. We became friends many years ago while we were all serving on the local Chamber of Commerce Board together, and later we served together on our local community foundation. We try to have lunch several times a year and sometimes make a day of it by taking a day trip to nearby communities for a little shopping therapy as well. We always have a great time and today was no different. Before we knew it time had passed and we needed to get on to other things. Thanks so much Linda for having us!
When I got home I found Dean in the garage "feeling overwhelmed" as he put it with all kinds of "his stuff" sitting out all over the place. He wanted to know if I would help him sort through things and I reminded him he kept teasing me about purging over the past several months preparing for this full-time life. While I don't think I would be much help as he is purging things, I did agree to help him when it came time to take it to storage!
This is just some of what he has to deal with:
One other thing I did earlier this morning was make some calls trying to find a storage unit for rent, and after making calls to four places had yet to find one. We knew there was one located in Altamont but I did not have any contact information, so we drove the 15 miles to check it out. We found the units and I called the number listed and found they did have a unit available that will work out for us, so we drove to Parsons (where their office was) to sign paperwork. While we were in Parsons we stopped to see our son at his workplace, where we also needed to sign some paperwork that we planned to do next week. That will save us a trip.
After we returned home I made some white chicken chili and we enjoyed a nice dinner on this cold fall evening. We watched a little TV. As usual I fell asleep for about an hour before getting up and making my way to bed.
Our first week of getting things done before we begin our full-time life. Next week is a busy week with another birthday, some babysitting, doctor appointments and getting our car worked on - besides continuing to work on packing remaining items in the house and Dean finishing his purging! How did we ever have time to work?
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