Saturday, February 17, 2018 - Walk in the Park; Tires Ordered; Bicycle Rack; Visiting with Neighbors; Cheddar's; Evening at Home

Saturday, February 17, 2018 - Walk in the Park; Tires Ordered; Bicycle Rack; Visiting with Neighbors; Cheddar's; Evening at Home

Today was a nice laid back day even though we did manage to do a few things.  After yesterday's bike ride, we decided to walk in the park today.  It was a nice day and we enjoyed the slower pace.  We managed to get in 3 miles and walked a little over an hour.  We returned home with nothing on the agenda but making sure we get tires ordered for Bentley.

After breakfast and the usual chores, Dean pulled out his computer and logged on to Simple Tires.  He learned about this from our friend David who did the same thing while he was here last year.  Pep Boys does not carry the brand tire he wants, which is Sailun, however Simple Tires provides a way to utilize Pep Boys services.  We purchase the tires from Simple Tires, they deliver the tires to Pep Boys who will take the old tires off the rims and put the new ones on.  Bonus:  They were offering a 10% discount today so we saved over $50!  It all went well until the charge would not go through on our credit card.  After a call to our credit card company, we found it was denied because of the dollar amount and since it was in Texas.  Once we let them know we did make the charge and we were traveling here, they processed it and the transaction was completed.  It was a bit frustrating at first.  Dean did not realize he had received an alert on his phone about the charge, because the sound to let him know a text message had arrived did not go off.  When he decided to call the credit card company, he discovered the alert.  So Bentley will now have his new shoes before we leave.  

I mentioned in a previous post that we found a bicycle rack at a garage sale a week or two ago for only $5.  Dean wanted to see how it was going to work and we are sure glad he took a look at it today, almost a month before we will be leaving.  While the bikes fit, he will definitely have to make some adjustments to keep them from bouncing against the RV, so that is a task that will keep him occupied in our down time.

I was inside, with the back window open to let the light in, when I noticed him looking at the bicycles after he hung them on the rack.  I walked over and got down close to the window and knocked on it.  He motioned for me to come out.  He was telling me about his concerns with carrying the bicycles without making some adjustments when we travel, when our neighbor across the fence, Ron walked over.  A short time later our neighbor next to us Ray, joined us.  They both thought we were getting ready to head home.  Once Dean explained what he was doing they told him they too had carried bicycles on the back of their rigs before.  Ray has a motorhome that he pulls an enclosed trailer behind.  He now hauls his car and his bicycles in it.  Ron no longer carries his but offered a few suggestions from making a wooden bracket to hold the bicycles away from the rig, welding something or moving them to the front of the truck.  Hopefully Dean will figure something out so we can safely haul them with us as we travel.  If not, we may be leaving the bicycles here in the valley.  Ideas, anyone?

While we were visiting with Ron, his wife Kym walked over.  They live in Neosho, MO.  During our visit we mentioned our planned trip to New York in June and then on to the New England States after that.  Since they had made that same trip they offered a few places we should visit, which we appreciated.  Ron also suggested we consider attending the Riverboat Festival they hold annually around Labor Day in Marietta, OH, his hometown.  We are not sure when we will actually head back to Kansas but decided to keep the Riverboat Festival as a possibility if we happened to be in the area at that time.  Marietta is on the Ohio River where West Virginia borders it to the east side of the state.  We hope to include an overnight stay in West Virginia as part of our trip.  It is a state we have not yet visited, so who knows maybe we'll see them later this year.  

During our conversation with Ron and Kym, our other friend across the fence, Stella walked up to visit after picking up her mail in their park office.  We all visited together for awhile, before Ron and Kym left.  Before Stella headed back to her rig, she mentioned they were going to Cheddar's with Dave and Nancy to eat at 2 if we wanted to go along.  She said you may have already ate, but surprisingly we had not.  In fact, when I tapped on the window about noon, I was actually going to ask Dean if he was ready for me to fix dinner - but an hour and a half later we were still there, enjoying our neighbor's visits.  I guess that worked out in our favor since we did go with them and had a great visit with Stella and Jay, and Nancy and Dave.  We really like Cheddar's food, but we rarely go, because it is always busy.  It was no different today.  We arrived about 2:15.  They said our wait would be about 35 minutes.  The wait time goes much faster when you have friends to visit with.  We were soon seated and was ordering our meal.  Dean had made a selection - I don't remember what it was until I told him what I was ordering and then he changed his to mine.  He often orders something he doesn't end up liking that well, but he almost always likes what I order, and then wishes he had ordered it instead.  (WOW, that was a lot of words!)  We were both very happy with "my" choice!  We had grilled shrimp and chicken breast with a pineapple pico de gallo, rice, broccoli and a loaded baked potato.  He had coleslaw instead of the broccoli. I just realized I failed to take a picture of our food, or us!  In fact I didn't take a picture all day yesterday.

Dean and I drove separately since the others were going to Walmart afterwards.  Since we made trips to Walmart the previous two days for things, we were happy to pass on that trip - especially on a Saturday!

Once home, I read blogs, trying to catch up on several I missed while I was behind writing my blog posts.  I also got out the map to see where Marietta, OH was and checked a few other things for our upcoming trip.  It seemed in no time we were turning the TV on to tune in to the Olympics, which we have really enjoyed watching the past several evenings.  I enjoyed playing my word game - Wordscapes on my phone for awhile.  It's a fun thing to do once in awhile to pass a little time.  There is so little I care to watch on TV and the Olympics have been such a joy.  I will really miss it when they end.  We did take a quick break and ran to Dairy Queen for a little sweet treat.  It's just too close to us.  

While we had no big plans today, we had a wonderful day, and very much enjoyed our visit with friends.