Thursday, March 11, 2021 - The Wind Has Settled, The Temps are Cooler, and The Rains Have Begun; Shopping Spree; Car Troubles??; Birthday Dinner with Misti

Thursday, March 11, 2021 - The Wind Has Settled, The Temps are Cooler, and The Rains Have Begun; Shopping; Car Troubles??; Birthday Dinner with Misti

What a busy day this has been.  I slept in a little this morning, it was 5:45 when I came downstairs to make coffee, and the 62 degree temps from yesterday had dropped to 49 this morning.  Brrrr!!  I turned the furnace up and turned the fireplace on too, to take the chill off.

Dean was happy to get breakfast sandwiches again this morning since I still have no protein powder for our shakes, but we WILL fix that, when we make a stop at Sam's.  I have my trusty list so I won't forget anything today. 

The plan was to leave here by 9:30.  I know Dean thought I'd never be ready in time, but we walked out the door almost on the dot.  The wind had quieted but the skies were dark, and we could see the rain was headed our way.  It started to rain between Altamont and Oswego, and it continued all the way to Carthage, MO.  Our first stop was at Coachlight RV Store.  Lo and behold they had exactly what we wanted - with a lid that made me happy!  How happy can you be about buying a new toilet?  Lol!  Pretty happy, when we've had so many problems with it.  I pray this one will be much better.  

Old toilet seat (I really dislike all of these pieces of plastic under the seat, and the edges are sharp).

New toilet and seat - it's sturdy with two small "braces" on the bottom of the lid that sit on the bowl like a normal house toilet.  It will be so much easier to clean.

Our next stop was Home Depot to get a couple of parts Dean needed.  He plans to install a shutoff valve on the new toilet, allowing us to shut it off from inside if we need to in the future.  

By now it was a little past 11:30, so we headed to Olive Garden, where we used a gift card we received for Christmas.  I always have the same thing - soup (pasta fagioli) salad and breadsticks.  Today I splurged and had a raspberry lemonade to go with it, which was delicious.  Dean had chicken alfredo.  He brought half of his home, so that will be his lunch for tomorrow.

Our last stop was almost next door from Olive Garden, at Sam's to pick up a couple of items we like to keep on hand.  Fortunately, the heavy rains let up and the rest of the day it was mostly a light rain.  It made the drive home much better than the drive over.

We were leaving Joplin, having gone a little over 6 miles, when the "check engine" light came on in the car.  We pulled over so we could look at the manual.  Of course, it tells you it could be serious and not to drive it without checking to see what the problem is.  We called Toyota and the service manager we work with, Ashley answered the phone.  She told us to bring it in and they would run diagnostics on it to see what the problem was.  They were booked solid, so we were extremely appreciative they fit us in and quickly at that.  It was not a serious problem so we will not worry about it for today.   We were soon back on the road again.  

We stopped in Oswego at the garage where we put a few things in the freezer.  The RV freezer does not have enough room for everything.  

Tomorrow is daughter Misti's birthday.  She has plans for tomorrow evening, so we took her and granddaughter Haleigh to dinner tonight.  We met them at The Kitchen Pass in Parsons and had a nice visit.  Our meal was really great.  Everyone except Haleigh had the special, which was beef tips, with mashed potatoes and asparagus.  Haleigh had chicken tenders and waffle fries.  It was good to catch up with these two beauties since we had not seen them since returning from our Texas/Oklahoma trip.  

We said our goodbyes, giving each other hugs before we headed back to Bentley.