Saturday, July 17, 2021 - We Love Mimi's cupcakes!

Saturday - July 17, 2021 - We Love Mimi's cupcakes!  A Work Day for Us!

I woke up this morning shortly after 4 to the sound of rain - and if the weather report is correct, we may get more throughout the day/evening .  At 4:30 I decided I wasn't going back to sleep.  I have been having problems getting my pictures downloaded from my phone to Google Photos.  I spent some time trying to figure that out, but I had to stop as I had things I had to do today.  I wanted to finish yesterday's blog post so I could get busy with the other items on my list.  I had to set aside two items until Monday or Tuesday - depending on the time we arrive at our first stop.

My niece Amy stopped by this morning.  She was so kind to bring us a few extra cupcakes from a batch she made for someone this morning.  For those of you in the area who might be interested, she has a Facebook page "Mimi's Sweets".  She takes orders for a variety of cupcakes.  I do not think you will be disappointed if you try them out.  

After she left, I couldn't wait to try one.  I love the box that holds them in place.  They were Snickerdoodle flavored and three had a small snickerdoodle cookie stuck in the top of the cupcakes.  They are one of our favorite cookies.  In fact the first thing I ever made for Dean was Snickerdoodles.  The cupcake was amazing - very light and moist and I loved the frosting as well.  

After my snack, I jumped into cleaning mode, dusting the entire RV from top to bottom, swept the floors, and vacuumed the carpets.  Finally, I scrubbed the bathroom floor and cleaned everything else, except the shower.  I'll give it a good scrubbing tomorrow.  Such a small little paragraph, but it sure took longer than these few words to get it all done.  LOL!

Dean left to mow the lot but it wasn't long until it started raining.  He's hoping he'll have a window of time tomorrow to get it done before we leave on Monday.  We have a long travel day (for us), a little over 300 miles, so we hope to be on the road by 9am tomorrow.  I keep chicken bites in the freezer for Jaxson when he spends the day with us, so I asked Dean to take those to the garage freezer when he left, and asked him to bring back a bag of frozen strawberries (for our morning shakes) and the remaining pot pies that I want to take with us.  

Our first stop and we'll still be in Kansas where we will stay two nights.  It's at a state park.  I would have changed it to one day if I could, but the window was too close to eliminate one day without having to still pay for the second day, so it will be our "rest up" day before we are on the road for six straight days.  We are not excited about that, but we want to arrive at Brett's no later than Monday, July 26 where we plan to stay for the week.  Our original plan was to be there on the 12th, then the 19th, but as you all know, plans do change!  Even though we just saw Brett and family a few weeks ago, we've never stayed in Bentley while in Nevada, we've never been anywhere in Nevada except Las Vegas, and our grandson Tucker will be there as well.  They actually live in their RV full-time too.  We are thankful we were able to get a reservation at the RV park where they stay during our time in Winnemucca.

Speaking of making reservations, I am surprised I only had one stop that I had a problem finding a place to stay.  It was in Utah and I finally had to bite the bullet and spend some "money" to find one there.  We've never paid anywhere near that much for a campsite before.  Since it will be our longest travel day; for us, there was not an option to keep going.  Every other campground we contacted for stops previous to Utah, and beyond, I was able to book a site on my first call.  

If all goes as planned, we will stay at least one night in the five remaining states we have not traveled to with Bentley - Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Idaho.  We've been keeping an eye on the forest fires.  Hopefully, we will not need to cancel any of those stops along the way.

As far as the remaining sites I booked they were in the $20-35/night range.  Between Passport America, Good Sam's and Escapees it sure helps to keep the price in the window we prefer.  

Before I knew it, it was 4:30.  Dean wanted to eat early tonight, as he hoped he might mow yet this evening.  I thawed some hamburger in the microwave, and made hamburger helper.  I try to keep one on hand for a quick meal, and tonight I was sure glad I had it.  He ate and headed to the lot.  He had not been gone 2-3 minutes and I heard the first raindrops.  It wasn't long and he returned.  He was almost to the lot, a mile away, when the first rain drops reached him.  Maybe tomorrow?

As I was washing the dishes, I remembered we still had blackberry cobbler in the refrigerator.  I intended to take a picture of it, but intentions are only good if you follow through.  Todd has blackberry plants here in the park and told me to pick what I wanted.  I was so thankful as it is my favorite fruit in a cobbler.  I warmed up a bowl for each of us.  It was so good! I saved some to give to Todd tomorrow.

While it didn't turn out to be as productive a day for Dean as he planned; fortunately, he took care of several things yesterday in preparation for our travels.  Mowing was his last big task. The forecast for Sunday still has a chance of rain, but low percentages; so hopefully he will be able to mow then.