I just haven't had the heart to blog the past few days because of my (our) frustration with the RV disc brakes. Things happen and I'm trying my best to deal with it, but as the days tick by our chances of much travel before we need to be back in Southeast Kansas are growing slimmer by the day. At this point, we'll be happy if we just make it to Yellowstone. Our reservation is August 16-23, so time is quickly dwindling. Part of going full-time was supposed to mean not hurrying to get somewhere. Most of the time it works. Our original plans included going to north Minnesota and North Dakota (new states to both of us), but that time frame was cut back. Then we decided we would just go to South Dakota, and work our to Yellowstone. Now, we are just hoping we'll be able to visit Yellowstone, taking the most direct route possible, while still having a few days rest in between moves. Moving every day and driving many miles a day is not our style AT ALL!! If it's not enjoyable, why do it!
Sunday, July 14 - I went to church this morning and afterwards all of my sisters' gathered at Cindy's house for a nice two hour visit. Afterwards I stopped by my Aunt Betty's and cousin, Barbara's home. Barbara's granddaughter is getting married this week in Branson. She wanted me to look at three dresses. After trying on each one, we settled on a printed skirt, a top and a jacket. We visited for a bit, before I headed back to Bentley. I did some things around Bentley, but for the most part that was our day. Dean has been working at the garage, washing/waxing Bentley and golfing as much as he can.
Monday, July 15 - Haleigh drove me to Parsons (good practice for her) to pick up Jaxson this morning. Kamron had a friend spend the night. Marc will bring her down over his lunch hour. Jaxson took swimming lessons a few weeks ago, so I called my niece Nikki to see if we could use their pool this morning. I'm anxious for him to show me what he can do.
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| Jaxson swimming with Nana - what fun! |
After our swim, we headed home. Haleigh wanted to make chicken, bacon, ranch quesadillas so we stopped at her house to pick up some tortillas - she doesn't care for our low carb ones. I was going to stop at Mi Pueblo to pick up cheese dip and chips for Jaxson - it's one of his favorite things to eat - but I forgot they are closed on Monday's. We went back to the RV and I called Pizza Hut numerous times with no answer but I knew they were open. Marc was on his way with Kamron, so I asked him to stop by and order it for me. He said they were packed. I guess they were too busy to answer the phone. He stayed to visit for a few minutes then left to get back to work - it takes most of his lunch hour to make the drive both ways.
Shortly after he left I left to pick up the pizza. After we were done with lunch, we watched Despicable Me - at least Jaxson did. The girls had seen it enough I don't think they were that interested.
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| Jax intent on TV, Kamron doing her nails and listening to music. |
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| Haleigh was looking at her foot...... oh, and by the way notice those shiny windows!! Haha |
Marc met us at the Stockade Travel Plaza at the north end of Parsons. After the kids were secured in the car, they left and we headed back to Oswego - slowly. We were just sure that we would be leaving tomorrow and now we are back at square one.
Dean called Michael on our way home. MIchael said he wanted to talk to one of his installers and get back with us, so we'll wait to hear from him. Later he sent a text that the installer would be calling us.
Tuesday, July 16 - First thing this morning I had to call the campground where we hoped to be staying tonight. Our Escapee camping club is having their monthly campout this week. We did not originally plan to attend because we expected to be further north - but since we were here, we decided it would make a great first stop as we headed north. So, I was very disappointed having to cancel today. It's over 100 miles away and we just are not comfortable pulling the RV with only the truck brakes.
Dean didn't play golf today hoping we'd hear from the installer, but the call didn't come until this afternoon when we were driving to Pittsburg to pick up our mail. When Dean explained what was happening, he immediately said it was the pump (actuator), which is what Dean has felt like it was from the beginning. Dean doesn't email much or even use it often, so it was late afternoon when he happened to see an email from Michael advising they would be shipping us a new pump. When he asked how long it would take to get it, I was aghast at "around the end of next week". We are not even sure about a time for the installation, once it arrives. The clock is ticking - will we get to travel at all this summer?
On the up side, we received our new TireTracker in the mail today. Our old one that was five years old quit working at the end of our last trip. We are anxious to try it out, but.....when will that be?
I took a few pictures on the way to Pittsburg and our way back to share some sites and things to see and/or do in our area.
My Grandpa and Grandma Stapleton lived about 4 miles south of Hallowell so we passed by and Angelo's a lot over the years. Grandpa loved the big round chunks of cheddar cheese they bought at Angelo's....and all of us grandkids did too!
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| About 3 miles east of Oswego, is Angelo's Deli. This is an icon in southeast Kansas opened by Angelo Sachetta in the early 1950's. His Angelo's Special - deli sandwich, is loved by many and even though Angelo and his wife have passed on, their secret sauce recipe and choice of meats and cheeses were passed on to new owners and are still great today. I just had one last week and I can attest, they are still delicious! |
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| Our mail location. |
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| My dad loved to take us to the site where Big Brutus was digging when we were kids. I loved visiting there and watching the HUGE chunks of dirt/coal it would pull out of the ground with its shovel. It was truly a marvel to watch. We have some old home movies when it was still working, taken in the 60's. If you haven't visited Big Brutus you should make the trip. It's well worth it. |
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| Just a short distance down the road from Big Brutus is Claythorne Hunting Lodge. We didn't drive by it as we were on the highway, but less than two miles north of this sign you will find Claythorne Lodge, which is internationally known. Click on it to learn more. |
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| The City of Oswego's airport, located two miles east of Oswego. |
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| What a beautiful day - new crops coming up under a beautiful cloud filled sky. |
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| On the left going up the hill is the northern side of our new property. It begins a little further up the hill from the road leading off to the left. The back part is almost all woods. While working there Dean has seen deer, along with a number of deer tracks in our yard. We look forward to enjoying a lot of nature in the future.....I'm thinking birds. I do love them, and the deer....we look forward to it. |
Well, no matter the situation, at least we are in Oswego where we are around friends and family. We are safe here and we have a great place to park under my cousin's watchful eye! I'm not sure when we will be back on the road again, but when we are, we're sure to have a great time!
Wednesday, July 17
Today, I made up my mind I needed to quit thinking of moving and getting some things done. I decided to tackle our budget and get it brought up to date. I made huge strides, but will still work on it again tomorrow to finish it up. In between I did other things around the rig - just to get up and move every so often. Dean played golf, so it was a pretty quiet day and evening.
Thursday, July 18
Today I was on a mission to get the budget finished. I am up to date at this point and happy that it's no longer nagging at me. I did get out yesterday to go by Cindy's. She had some more fresh tomatoes and cucumbers for me. I have to be careful, and she does too, not to eat too many tomatoes. The acidity in them causes us both to have cold sores. I used to have them horribly as a kid because I ate so many of them. I guess I've learned to pace myself as I rarely have them these days. Dean played golf again this morning. That is a good thing about being here - he is making use of the annual membership we buy. He's definitely got his money's worth out of it this year and it's good for him to get out. I'd say to get some exercise, but since they drive their carts almost to the point of each swing - I'm not sure how much he really gets! Lol!
Tonight I cooked half a slab of pork ribs in the Instapot, then Dean put them on the grill with a thin coating of barbeque sauce. By the way, I found a sugar free BBQ sauce and Hellman's has come out with ketchup that has only 1 gram of sugar. We no longer use much BBQ sauce or ketchup so it's great to have products we can use occasionally. While the ketchup is pretty sweet - I use Worcestershire sauce on my ham/cheeseburgers to cut the sweet down, as I rarely eat a bun anymore.
The ribs were delicious and very, very tender. We also had green beans, tomatoes and cucumbers. I guess we were too full as we never even had any of the fresh cantaloupe I cut up earlier today.
I have my fingers crossed the disc brake situation will work out! We are on our way to Michigan with a lot of first to include tracking down a wonderful county park miles from the interstate. Was a first come first serve and worked out wonderfully.
ReplyDeleteWe had multiple offers on the house. If we can get the contractor to get it hooked to the city sewer system then we are closing on 8/26/19 as long as there are no issues with the inspection.
It will eventually happen...just trying to keep busy doing things that help us pass the time while we wait. I am getting a lot done and that is a good feeling.
DeleteWow, that is great on the house offers. I pray all goes well and the closing goes as planned.
Enjoy your trip. We both love Michigan and there is still so much we haven't seen yet. Another day, another time!