Saturday & Sunday Saturday, June 22, 2019 - Happy birthday Heath! Breakfast at Dutch Country Cafe; Lunch at Marie's Sunday - June 23, 2019 - Catching up on Blogs, Going through Emails, Family Visits

Saturday & Sunday   
Saturday, June 22, 2019 - Happy birthday Heath!  Breakfast at Dutch Country Cafe; Lunch at Marie's   

Dean's oldest son Heath is celebrating his birthday, with his family, in Cancun, MX this week.  What a way to celebrate your birthday!  We hope they are having a great time.  We've enjoyed the pictures of the kids they have shared with us.  We are looking forward to seeing them in a week.

We both enjoyed lunch at Dutch Country Cafe yesterday and since we haven't had breakfast out in some time, we decided to see how their breakfast is.  Dean had his regular breakfast and I went with a ham and cheese omelet.  When they brought our food there were enough hash browns for almost 4 meals.  I couldn't quite finish my omelet or my toast, so we got a to-go box and brought the rest of it home.  We'll see if we can't make Dean a good breakfast for tomorrow morning too.

We went back to the RV.  I did the few dishes we had, made the bed and we headed to Marie's (Dean's sister).  Marie invited her siblings (Larry, Joyce, Ruthann, Dean), her children (Tracy/Aaron, Christy/Ron, and Keith/Ruana and their families, and Brett but he couldn't make it.  Marie is a great cook; and all of her kids are too.  I know Joyce, Ruthann, Carina and Katie pitched right in doing their part as well.   For lunch we had two kinds of pork loin that Jerry (Marie's husband) cooked on their grill; fruit, cheesy potatoes, potato salad, roast beef salad, baked beans, mac & cheese, beef and noodles, corn bread casserole, spicy corn, pink stuff salad, and homemade rolls.  I probably missed something.  I took a small spoonful of everything and IT WAS ALL DELICIOUS!  That was our lunch.  For dessert we had chocolate chip cookies (homemade by Katie, I think), no bake cookies, what I call dirt cake with gummy worms on the side, peach cobbler, zucchini cake, and I think there were a few other things as well.  Oh yeah, and ice cream for the cobbler too.  You never go hungry at Marie's.  

This is the flag that our grandson Tucker made for Marie - she has it proudly displayed just outside her front door!

Larry's wife Sandi and her four great-granddaughters.

Nephews Aaron and Ron 

Nieces Tracy (blue), Christy (pink) and sister Joyce.

Ron, Gage's girlfriend, Larry

Carina, Sandi and Aaron

Ruanna feeding Canon.  He sure is a cutie!

Larry and Sandi's granddaughter Shelby, husband Scotty and their four girls; and Keith and Ruanna's son Gage, his girlfriend and her little boy Canon joined us for dinner as well.  It's fun to see all of the little ones having a good time with each other.

After lunch everyone visited.  As always, there was lots of laughter.  It was a very enjoyable day!  It was around 8 when we headed back to Bentley. 

The park was full when we pulled in this evening.

Sunday - June 23, 2019 - Catching up on Blogs, Going through Emails, Family Visits

I slept in this morning until 6:30 and woke to more rain.  I believe it rained most of the night as well.  Typically we turn the air conditioner fan on Low when we go to bed, so it will run all night long.  Sometimes it's nice when there are loud outside noises (such as a highway, train, etc.), but I've found I sleep better when the fan runs all night.  Last night neither of us remembered to change it to Low.  I think I woke up every time it went off - which seemed often.  It was about 3, when I finally got up, found my flashlight and turned it to Low so it would run continuously and I could get some sleep.  Why I didn't do it the first time I woke up, I don't know!  I slept great the rest of the night.


After our morning coffee, Dean doctored up the leftover hash browns, warmed up my remaining omelet and re-toasted the homemade toast from yesterday for his breakfast.  He said the hash browns were better today.  

This is what I saw when I walked out of Bentley this morning - not an RV anywhere.  They sure were quiet leaving.

Dean went outside to try and locate the problem with the trailer brakes.  While he was busy with that I decided to catch up on reading blog posts, and spend some time cleaning up my emails.  I've been doing this when I have an extra hour or two and I'm making some progress.  I helped Dean a couple of times outside.  When he came in he said he had found the problem.  When we bought this truck the plug-in for the RV was just above the bumper of the truck.  Dean asked the dealer to put a plug in the bed of the truck because our first truck had one in the bed and he really liked it.  What he found out today is the plug-in above the bumper works.  There is a bad connection between that one and the one they put in the bed of the truck.  We are now good to go.  He'll work on the connection between the two  of them after we get home. 

Once he was finished, we had a quick lunch.  I continued working on cleaning up my blogs until about 1 or so.  Dean wanted to stop by to see his brother Larry and wife Sandi again before we leave tomorrow.  Their son Preston, wife Erica and daughter Addison were there.  They drove up from Houston yesterday to spend a few weeks.  We had a great visit with them all before we left to drive out to Marie's.  When we got there, no one was there.  Dean called her and they were on their way to Lawrence to eat.  

Banners put up by the City of Garnett, purchased by family members to honor Veterans from Garnett.  This is Dean's brother Dale.  He passed in 2009.  Do you see any resemblance?  

Dean has been talking about visiting his cousin Ray and wife Cheri Peine in Garnett.  I suggested we stop by to see them.  Fortunately, they were home and we had wonderful visit with them .  These last few days have been great for Dean, visiting and/or hearing about family and friends still in the area.  We've driven a number of the roads around Garnett including the one leading to the home where he grew up.  While the house is no longer standing, there were a few buildings/structures he reminisced about.  The one room school he attended through sixth grade was just down the road.  I love hearing about his memories of the area and seeing where different places are.  Names that were very foreign the first time we came to Garnett now sound much more familiar to me.

We were shocked to see water on both sides of the highway from Pottawatomie Creek, which a few days ago was all open fields on our way to Marie's.  We knew it rained last night and some the previous two days but WOW!  Come to find out they had around 5" of rain last night along with a few inches over the previous two days.   

When we left Ray and Cheri's we grabbed a hamburger at Dairy Queen; then drove to Marie's.  Ruthann sent a text once they were leaving Lawrence.  On the way we decided to take a little detour and visit the Richmond Lake, then we took the back roads to Marie & Jerry's.  

Richmond Lake

We learned Richmond's ballfield was moved out near the lake several years ago, so we had to check it out.  The ballfield is in the background.

Another shot of the lake area where several people were fishing this evening.

The countryside around Garnett is really beautiful - lots of rolling hills.

Can you guess what I found interesting in this picture?  Yes, I love those old barns!

We had a really good visit with every one this evening - Jerry, Marie, Joyce, Ruthann, Tracy, Aaron, Carina and Katie.  Another great evening with a lot more laughs.  It was 9:15 when we headed home and I was able to get this last picture of what was left of the sunset.

We have one more overnight stop before we head back to Oswego.