Sunday, April 22, 2018
Today was a pretty routine day - we went to church this morning, then headed home for a quick lunch. Immediately afterwards I headed to my sister Jody's house for our Sunday afternoon Sisterfest from 1-3. We got caught up with each other and all that is going on with our families.
While I was at Jody's, Dean went to the storage shed to get our battery charger so he could put it on Logan's old car (that is now being passed on to granddaughter Haleigh) to see if the battery is still good or not. After I returned we went to Misti's to see if the car would start and sure enough it did. The brake lights and turn signals in the back were not working but Dean worked on them a bit and they were working by the time he finished up. Hopefully she'll be driving it to and from school this coming week.
Once back at Bentley I worked on the blog until it was time to stop and fix dinner. We watched last week's episodes of American Idol to catch up before it came on tonight. I'm glad Dean enjoys watching this as much as I do.
Monday, April 23, 2018
Our goal was to begin walking again this week and we finally followed through! We walked 1.21 mile at an average pace of 17:16 min. It wasn't that far but the pace was great for not having walked in such a long time. It felt good and we look forward to getting back in this routine.
When we returned to the RV Park, our neighbors, who are in a motorhome, were outside. They are from South Dakota and are getting ready to head north today. They gave me their card and I told them the name of our blog so they could check it out.
We got started a little late this morning. We have dentist appointments in Pittsburg at 10:00, so we were rushing a little to get everything done before we needed to leave. I have an appointment with my lung doctor this afternoon, so we drove two vehicles to Pittsburg.
After our appointments we drove the van to the north side of Pittsburg so we could pick up our mail while we were in town and then stopped at Rib Crib for lunch. They brought an enormous amount of food. We were able to take enough leftovers home for our dinner tonight. I ordered a baked potato; Dean ordered a sandwich--it was huge!
I dropped Dean off at the dentist's office where we left the truck and I headed to Joplin. When I got to the intersection south of Pittsburg (KS400/MO171) I saw our neighbors from the RV Park getting fuel at the convenience store. About that time my phone rings and my daughter said, where are you going? I'm thinking - Does she have a drone watching me? LOL! Come to find out, she was sitting at the convenience store waiting on the shuttle to pick my grandson, Logan, up so he could go to KC to take his physical for the Navy.
I had a few stops to make before my appointment at 1:40. I didn't find anything worth buying and before I knew it I realized I was pushing my appointment time but I made it with about 5 minutes to spare so all was good.
My doctor told me he had not received the results from my most recent pulmonary function test yet so he was going to have his nurse call the hospital to see if they could fax it. He will call me once he sees it and confirm some reductions in the prednisone I'm taking.
I made a quick stop at Walmart to pick up a few things and then Sam's.
It was almost 6 when I finally made it home. We warmed up our leftovers from lunch today and it tasted as good, if not better tonight. After a long day, we enjoyed just sitting back and watching American Idol this evening.
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
We were not so rushed this morning in our walk. We managed to get 2.02 mi/at an average pace of 18:02 min. per mile. My left calf was hurting a little so we slowed a bit and stopped so we didn't make it worse.
Dr. Slocum, my lung doctor, called me this morning to confirm my pulmonary function test was great, so I can go reduce my prednisone 2.5 mg now and again in 2 months. Great news!!
I spent the day cleaning and doing paperwork. Dean played golf. I have not heard anything from the Cherokee Clinic or Hospital about scheduling me for the EGD Dr. Broce wants me to have, so I followed up on that. I hope to get a date scheduled sometime for the procedure this week.
We also have never received our reimbursement check for the gate valve repairs that were made while we were in Mission. It's been almost three months. While they received the information I sent them it apparently did not get to where it should be, so the proper person did not have it. I emailed them a copy of what I sent them back in January. Hopefully they cut us a check pretty quick.
I realized I had not forwarded a copy of my lab results to Dr. Broce after I went to the Cherokee Clinic so I worked on that - but didn't get anything resolved today. I'll need to make another call tomorrow - evidently I need to sign a medical release (which would involve me making a trip to Vinita) or Dr. Broce can request it. By the time I found that out, her office had closed.
My health insurance is taking a BIG increase this year - about $95/mo, so I decided to look at Health.gov and see what is available. I'm not sure I want to change as the policy is pretty good, but that is a hefty price increase. I found out that I cannot even consider changing until November/December of this year due to minimum essential coverage. So, I will continue with what I have and see what is available this fall/winter.
By the time I did all of this it was time to fix dinner. We grilled some hamburgers and they were great. When I was at Walmart yesterday I noticed they had brioche buns - 4 in the package, so I bought some. The burgers were great on the brioche buns. We will definitely get more of these in the future.
Misti called later and asked if I wanted to walk with her. She picked me up and we drove to Riverside Park and I logged another 1.79mi/17:00 min per mi. It was nice to have the opportunity to visit with her, but talking that much while walking that fast and I was a little breathless - I'm definitely going to have to work back to the level we were at before in order to go at that pace while talking! Lol! What a difference of almost a month of not walking or biking has made.
Back at home, I did some pre-prep for moving, as we will be taking Bentley to Eufaula, OK tomorrow for the Heartland Oklahoma Chapter Rally. We are looking forward to seeing many of our Heartland friends during the next 5 days.
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
We were not able to walk this morning because it was raining. I'm glad Dean disconnected our water and sewer last night rather than waiting until this morning. All we had to do was unplug the electric cord, pull in the slides and raise the jacks. Fortunately we had a lag in the rain around noon and we pulled out of the park here in Oswego about 12:35.
We drove in the rain all the way to Eufala. Fortunately it was not real heavy and we made pretty decent time, arriving about 3:45.
Since it rained we stayed in the rig for most of the afternoon/evening. The rally starts tomorrow evening so we'll have time to visit with everyone tomorrow through the day.
Thursday, April 26, 2018
The rain quit sometime in the night, and while it was a little muddy we walked a little over 2 miles this morning. The campground here is really nice - there are several sections, including one for folks traveling with horses. They have individual corrals, stalls and a round corral area to walk them.
We spent a good part of the day visiting with friends, and we made a run to Walmart for a few things. We are having a Mexican potluck on Friday evening. I am going to make a Mexican Chocolate Cake (sheet cake). I found this recipe years ago (40+) in a magazine and I've made it many times in the past. I have two smaller sheet cake pans so I will make one with nuts in the frosting and one with plain frosting.
Tonight we had grilled hot dogs and chips, along with chili, and other toppings for the dogs as well as a few side dishes. It was all very good.
Afterwards 15 of us played LCR (Left, Center, Right) at the clubhouse.. Even though I bought this game for us to play at home years ago we never did. My sister Cindy told me how much fun it was so tonight I found out what she meant. We had a great time. Each person started with $1 worth of quarters. The dice have black dots on them along with L's, C's and R's. If you roll an R - you pass a quarter to the right, if you roll an L - you pass a quarter to the left. If you roll a C - you put a quarter in a bucket we passed up and down the table as each person took their turn. If you rolled and got all black dots - you got to retain the quarters you had and hoped it happened again on your next roll.
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| These two ladies were rubbing shoulders for luck - they rolled all 3 dice to get the black dots several turns in a row. |
The second game it came down to me and Stella with one quarter each - and I rolled a C. I lost my quarter and Stella won $14, plus her original $1. Win or lose, it was still a lot of fun for the evening.
Friday, April 27, 2018
Dean and I walked again this morning and managed to get in another 2 miles, before we went to the clubhouse around 8:00 for coffee and pastries. Dean is going to play golf this morning with Dave and Lin.
At 10:00 the ladies toured the different rigs - several of our group have new Landmarks so it was fun to see the upgrades Heartland has made. While they were beautiful, and several things would be nice to have in our rig, I don't think I would change the layout of my rig. The fun thing about looking at other units - is seeing the things they have done to either make better use of storage, or find new ways of expanding storage. For instance, Nancy had a wonderful spice/storage rack in her pantry. It hangs on the back of her pantry door. I will be getting one of those in the near future. I currently have my spices in a drawer next to the stove. While it is handy, I cannot stand them up, so they lay on their side. As the RV moves down the road, and as I open and close the drawer, some of the spice spills out into the lid of the containers. When I open it I lose some of the contents, so there is a fair amount of waste. Having it upright - even if it is not right next to the stove - is more important to me. I rarely use more than 2-4 spices at a time so I think it will be worth it to take a few extra steps.
Earlier today I was looking at our cabinets with the "glass/plastic" door fronts. I really do not like how you can see some of the contents and how junky it looks. I was wondering what I could do to cover these so others wouldn't see it when they are in our rig. Nancy came to the rescue again. She bought some paper (a little heavier posterboard) and cut it to fit inside each of her doors and then used double sided tape to hold it in place. I will be trying that soon. You would never know when looking at hers that they weren't made like that.
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| Notice you can see the shadows of things in the cupboards with the glass insets. Even though it has a milky finish you can still see items inside. |
Later I was talking to Barbara V. about some things in her unit. That led me to show her something in my rig. While she was there I mentioned the areas of my cabinets where a drawer had opened in transit, making a light spot on a door or cabinet opposite it. I mentioned I needed to find some way to try and cover those up. She told me she had something she thought would work... Old English Scratch Cover for Dark Woods, and she let me borrow it so I could give it a try. Wow, this worked perfectly and I will be buying a bottle of this soon - it will keep the entire RV looking much nicer.
I have learned a lot from other RVer's, while either talking to them or reading their blogs that have resulted in many space saving ideas, new products, etc.
We had lunch on our own and I enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich. Dean made it back not too long before the Heartland Chapter meeting at 1:30. We will be meeting back here in September of 2018 for our fall rally. Everyone is enjoying the campground.
At 4:30 we caravaned to McAlester, OK to eat dinner at GiaComo's Italian Cuisine. It was pretty good. We really enjoyed our main meal - I had Chicken Parmesean and Dean had Chicken Alfredo. Included with it was spaghetti and meatsauce, meatballs, ravioli, salad and breadsticks. The meatballs were okay but they were hard to cut. Dean almost had one fly off his plate as he was trying to cut it with his fork. The ravioli was boiled and we prefer the fried or toasted ones. The salad was quite good as was the bread so all in all we were happy with our meal, although it was pretty expensive for the two of us - over $50, but we were with great company and it's okay to splurge once in awhile.
Once we returned to the campground both Dean and I went to the clubhouse to play LCR tonight but neither of us came out the big winner. Again, it's more about the fun and time spent with friends than who wins.
Saturday, April 28
Rather than go to the clubhouse for coffee and pastries this morning I stayed home and made my Mexican Chocolate Cake for the potluck dinner tonight. I had enough time to get everything picked up in the rig before I headed to the clubhouse for Crafts with Barbara W. Barbara and her husband Orville are the Heartland Owners Club Chapter Leaders. Barbara is very crafty and today she had 3 small crafts for us to do. A stretchy bookmark, a paperclip bookmark and a magnet clothespin. They were easy enough that even I was able to make them without any hassle. That's saying a lot since I am not at all crafty!
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| Stretchy bookmark, paperclip bookmark, and the magnet clothespin. |
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| Stretchy bookmark put to work! |
I asked Barbara if she could use some help getting ready for tonight and agreed to come up and help her at 2. Several went into town to check out the various shops (mostly flea markets and antique stores) but I chose to stay home and rest a little. I didn't sleep good last night and I was tired. At about 2 I headed up to the clubhouse. I chopped onions and tomatoes and then we got everything set up so it would be ready to go when we returned a little before 5:30. We had enough food leftover we'll have it again tomorrow night for dinner.
Dean and I decided not to play a game this evening. I think they may have played Mexican Train, which we enjoy but we were both tired, so we decided to return to Bentley, watch a little TV and rest.
Sunday, April 29, 2018
This morning 8 couples drove into Eufala to have breakfast. We originally planned to try out "I Smell Bacon" but it was small and they only had one table open when we arrived, so we moved next door to the "Anglers Cafe". It turned out to be a great choice. Our waitress handled our group wonderfully - getting us our drinks, returning to get our order and then following up with refilling of drinks before our meals arrived - almost in the order she took them. The food was quite good and there was plenty of it. Dean and I each had 2 eggs, bacon (me) sauage (him), hash browns (me) and cottage fries (him), along with a biscuit and sausage gravy. The food was really good and our meals were $4.97 each. The plates were huge and full of food. We were very happy and we will return here in September when we attend our fall rally. It was 10-10:30 when we returned to the campground.
We rested and then visited some before we headed back to the clubhouse at 5:30 for leftovers from our Mexican potluck.
Afterwards, Donna asked all of the couples to line up across the room from each other. She had one of those soft but spiky balls that stretch. We took turns tossing them across the room to our partner until one of them missed and then they had to leave the game. It came down to Stella and I and finally Stella missed. I won - a bag of Hershey chocolates!! Yummmm!
We set out at Mike & Peg's for awhile. We didn't stay too long as we were both tired but we sure had a great week here at the rally. Tomorrow morning we'll say our good byes. Since we'll be headed to New York the first part of June, we do not expect to see this group again until September when we'll return back here to Little Turtle RV Park.
Monday, April 30, 2018
We got out and walked again this morning and managed to get in a little over 2 miles. We've enjoyed these morning walks. The air has been cool but not cold making it quite enjoyable to be outside. Finally spring/summer is here. It feels like spring in the morning and summer by afternoon!
When we returned, we worked on getting the rig ready to move and then made our rounds to say goodbye to those that were still here. We pulled out of Little Turtle RV Park about 9:45.
We are meeting my cousin Jim and his wife Wanda for lunch at JL's BBQ just south of Pryor, OK on our way home. JL's has a large parking area where we can easily fit Bentley in while we have lunch. Jim and Wanda were already there when we pulled in. After going through the buffet line and choosing our food we spent the next hour and a half visiting. We had a great time with Jim and Wanda, and I wonder why we don't make time to see them more than once or twice a year, as well as other family members that are not that far from us.
Our next stop was in Vinita at the Cherokee Health Center so I could have some more blood drawn and to pick up a prescription. Fortunately the entrance road is wide enough Dean can park Bentley to the side while I ran in to take care of these two things. It took me less than 30 minutes and we were back on our way.
We arrived in Oswego around 3:30 or so. We were soon set up and relaxing a bit when someone knocked on the door. My cousin Barbara stopped by to visit for a little while. She has been waiting to get a date set for a surgery she needs and it will finally happen the first part of June.
Dean and I both had leftovers tonight. I still had my leftovers from the Italian restaurant a few nights ago and he had his leftovers from lunch today. We enjoyed them while we watched Dancing With the Stars, the Athletes.
I apologize for the lack of posts lately. I prefer to write more often than I have recently. When we are at rallies it is often difficult to stay up to date. It also seems we have been very busy since we've back in Oswego and right now I don't see that changing much since we are trying to spend as much time as we can with family during May, and trying to cram in all of our routine 6 month doctor appointments along with a few routine tests we need to do before we head east. I'll write as often as I have something to share and I can. Once we get back on the road, we'll have more adventures to share with you.
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