Monday, September 9-10, 2019 - Getting Things Done
Monday, September 9
I've mentioned before how much we enjoy going to Lamar's in Wichita before. Dean and I both love apple fritters and we think Lamar's make some of the best we've ever had, so it was on our radar first thing this morning. Oh my, they were so good. A bit of a sugar rush, they are so big, but once I start eating it I just can't stop. Next time, maybe we should share one - although I'm not sure Dean would share with me!!! LOL!!
It was 10:40am before we left All Seasons RV Park in Wichita and headed north to 96 Highway. We arrived at Sand Hills State Park just northeast of Hutchinson at 12:06pm. We are in site 26, and Thursday Brett, Emilee and Tucker will arrive and park next to us. More about that later.
I immediately got started doing more laundry. I've had to eliminate a few things from my wardrobe due to weight loss and it seems I'm always doing laundry now. We've just been so busy I haven't had time to go clothes shopping. Once we are back in Oswego or Branson in the next few weeks, maybe I can take time to look then. Hopefully, I can still find some end of season sales.
We really like this RV park - it's our third time staying here. Unfortunately, it has really been hot today, and the trees are not big enough to provide much shade yet. It looks like the heat will be hanging around a few more days. As much as I love the beautiful glass panel in our door, when the sun hits it, it really heats things up inside. I took a towel and hung it over the door to keep some of the heat out and it actually helped quite a bit. Once the sun gets down it's no longer a problem - until the next day - and then we deal with it all over again. I was telling my sister about it this afternoon when I called her. She suggested getting some of the tape they've been advertising on TV that you can put on just about anything and then remove it. I'd like to try it with the reflective insulation we have put int he windows - it is working great. I'll have to look into that. Of course if we could manage to get a site where the sun is not on the door side of the RV it would help, but it doesn't always work out that way.
While we were in Garnett Dean found a tear in a seal on one of the slides so he wanted to get that fixed while we are here. Someone at the park in Wichita told him Hutchinson had a nice RV parts store, so after lunch, we headed into Hutchinson to Discount RV Parts & Services. We were surprised at how much inventory they had available in their store. They were very nice to work with, however we didn't have all the information we needed to get the seal today, so we'll be back tomorrow morning. (I imagine they get quite a bit of customers due to the fairgrounds here in Hutch. They have 211 full hookup sites. There are a number of rallies and jamborees held here throughout the year. That doesn't count all of the RV's that are dry camping in the fair parking areas or those that park here at Sand Hills State Park).
Dean also made an appointment to get the oil changed in the truck. It is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9.
I spent most of the day working on the blog. I'm determined to get it caught up before we move again next Monday. We'll see how it goes.
I made goulash for dinner tonight and it sure tasted good.
Tuesday, September 10, 2019 - Running Errands
We headed into Hutchinson (Hutch for short) to have the oil changed at the Chevy Dealership there. They also changed the air filter, and told Dean it was absolutely filthy. We'll need to make sure it is checked each time from here on out.
Our next stop was at Discount RV Parts & Sales where we soon had the size of seal we needed for the slide, and our last stop was at Walmart to pick up a few groceries. We should be good for the rest of the week, I hope!
While Dean worked on replacing the seal, I spent most of the day getting our address changed from UPS to our new mail service. I managed to get 90% of it done online today. I will need to make calls to a few people tomorrow and get Dean to take care of a few things that he will need to do. Fortunately I kept copies of the items I received in the mail to confirm the address had been changed two years ago. I also had another list where I marked off the ones I changed online. So, there were only a few new ones to add to this list. So glad I saved all that information!
It was another very warm day in the RV - warmer than I care for. It wasn't unbearable but it wasn't really comfortable either. The mornings are cooler and once it starts cooling down in the evening - after 8:00 or later it's not bad but by 10 or 11am it's getting to the point I don't want to do much because it just makes you uncomfortable. I know air conditioning has spoiled me in a major way!
Brett sent us a note this evening a little before 9, letting us know Dacy and Tucker would be coming to the State Fair tomorrow. The Columbus High School Band will participate during Band Day. Dacy plays clarinet and Tucker plays tuba. So, we will go to the Fair tomorrow too.
Travels with Bentley
Bentley - our Heartland Bighorn
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Thursday, September 5 - Sunday, September 8, 2019 , 2019 - Catching up with Family in Wichita, KS
Thursday, September 5 - Sunday, September 8, 2019 , 2019 - Catching up with Family in Wichita, KS
Thursday, September 5 - Garnett to Wichita, Afternoon Errands.
We left the North Garnett Lake Campground at 9:36am. It was a sunny 74 degrees. We meandered on several highways today. We headed south on 59, to 169, to County RD 58, to State Street, where we turned west on 54. We took it into to El Dorado, then headed south on 77 to 400 Highway, which we took to the west side of Wichita before turning off on 135th to our site for the next four nights. We arrived at All-Seasons RV Park at 1:16pm. It was nice seeing a little different scenery today.
We pulled into this rest stop near Toronto, KS for a break. The RV to our left was having some problems. Dean visited with him for a few minutes and gave him something he thought might help him. His travel trailer was new and this is his first outing - just him and his dog.
While Dean was inside using our facilities I walked down to take a picture of this sign. Very interesting information.
We had errands we wanted to run once we reached Wichita. Sam's was first on the list to refill our "nut" addiction. We eat quite a few almonds/mixed nuts as a snack - many evenings. It's hard to imagine that we can go through a big tub in 4-6 weeks - when we only use small containers to put them in - but with two of us they go fast.
I also needed to get a gift for a baby shower I am attending on Saturday. Our daughter-in-law, Andrea's, sister is expecting a baby in November. We made a stop at Bed, Bath & Beyond where I purchased a gift card to Buy Buy Baby. I had never heard of this store before. It is owned by Bed, Bath & Beyond. Then we were off to Walmart to buy a book for the baby. Everyone was asked to bring one with a note inside of who it was from. I thought it was a great idea.
Our errands done, we returned to Bentley. We were pretty worn out after our drive and all of our errand running. After dinner, Dean enjoyed some TV while I worked on the blog. Everytime I think I'm getting caught up we get so busy I find it hard to keep up. I'm thankful for everyone following along. It's important to me to try and document what we've done and where for Dean and I - something we can look back at and revisit our favorite places when we can no longer do this, to let family and friends know where we are and pass on information to others.
Again, we have an action packed weekend, so stay tuned.
Friday, September 6, 2019 - Grandparents Day; Emerson Visits Nana while Daddy & Papa play golf.
Dean and I are visiting Roman's (Heath & Casey's youngest son) school today for Grandparents Day. His school is just a short distance from the RV Park, so we allowed a decent amount of time to arrive, so we thought! Schools in the Wichita area are nothing like our hometown. It's not one school but sometimes two or three in the same vicinity and not always tied together. We went in one location - that wasn't it and we couldn't find a connecting road, so back out to the main road. We drove further south, but had to wait for what seemed like 10 minutes before someone allowed us to turn left in front of them into the school next door. Traffic was unbelievable as every grandparent in central Kansas must have been attending! Casey's parents sent a text and told us where they parked since all of the front entrance parking was full. By the time we finally got in, we had to finally park on the grass out front and to the south. It was chaos! Lol!
However, we finally made it to the front door - where a large group was waiting to get in the door, so that took a while as well. Each class had a schedule of three things to do. The school staff did a great job by dividing up the classes and where they would go first, which seemed to work very well. Roman's first stop was at a photo booth. Such a clever idea! They had a few props like oversized glasses and frames we could use. Mike & Brenda (Casey's parents) and Roman went in first, followed by Dean, Roman and I. They took four pictures, and printed them right there - 2 each, one for us and I assume one for Roman to take home. That was fun!
Our next stop was at Roman's room where we met his teacher Mrs. VanWyhe. There were a couple of things for him to do. First was to interview one of his grandparents and he chose his Grandpa Mike. He had Roman giggling as he wrote down his answers. Another one was to go around the room and find numbered papers to write the numbers in various formats. We enjoyed looking at different things he had done that were posted on the walls in and outside their room as well.
The final stop for all of us was at the lunchroom where we each enjoyed a doughnut and water before we dropped Roman back at his room for the rest of the day.
Dean and I headed back to Bentley where we had a sandwich before Jarred showed up with Emerson a short time later. Emerson and I are going to have a play date while Papa and Daddy golf.
We had a great time playing alphabet bingo, Disney character Matching Card Game, and just random fun! It was amazing how quickly the time flew by. Before we knew it Daddy and Papa were back.
We visited for a bit before changing Emerson into her gymnastic bodysuit for her gym time at the Y. We followed Jarred there. It was fun watching her group go through the various exercises they had them do. She was having a great time.
Emmy is a happy girl and full of ENERGY! It was good for her to have time to burn some of it off. However, afterwards she was really TIRED! Since Mommy (Andrea) is helping friends get ready for Aunt Kelly's baby shower tomorrow, also went to dinner with them. I had not been to a Jason's Deli in quite sometime. I ordered the Italian Cruz Po'boy and it was delicious. Emmy was fading fast and after a dish of ice cream (which is free with your meal - yea!) we headed back to her house.
Emmy gave us a costume show from some of her favorite fun dresses, before sleep started calling her name - and fast!
We have another big day tomorrow!
Saturday, September 7, 2019 - Getting Ready for the Shower; Football Game; Visit with Heath & Family; Princess Emmy Spends the Night.
Today was busy from the time we got up until we fell into bed this evening.
I was up at 5 and started laundry - two loads this morning. After breakfast I painted my toenails - as I wanted to wear a pair of sandals to the baby shower. A very painstaking thing for me. I read somewhere several months ago that if you put vaseline on the skin around your toenails that any over polishing is easily removed, so I gave it a try - and it works. While it took longer to prepare for the job of painting them - the outcome was better than anytime I've tried to do this in the past.
Shower, fixing my hair, makeup and ironing clothes took a good part of my morning. I do love my little steam iron I bought awhile back. It works great - is really tiny and easy to store. After doing all of that I got everything ready for the shower gift. Shortly before 11, Dean dropped me off at Andrea and Kelly's cousins house where the baby shower is being held. He met Jarred at his house where they played darts before they had lunch together. Andrea spent yesterday evening helping Suzanne (and other family members, I'm sure) get prepared for today. Suzanne has a beautiful home.
The cake they had made was gorgeous and I was sure I had taken a picture of it but it's not on my phone, so evidently I only thought I took it. Who knows? It was so pretty though, and DELICIOUS. It was not overly sweet even though the piece I ate had quite a bit of icing (which I love). But, I'm getting ahead of myself - they also prepared a full lunch with chicken salad sandwiches on croissants, fruit cups, hummus and pita chips along with a choice of drinks (tea, lemonade water). It was all delicious.
Afterwards, Emmy helped Aunt Kelly open her gifts - well, maybe she opened them and then handed the gifts to Kelly. Either way she was a big helper!
Emerson is excited for her new cousin, Colen, to arrive in November. She will be a good cousin to him.
Dean picked me up a little after 1. We hurried back to the RV so I could change clothes - next up - a football game in Derby.
It was terribly hot so I put on my lightweight shirt and shorts and we hurried to Derby, making one quick stop to get something to drink. All that rushing and the game before Abram's was still going on - and it wasn't even the 4th quarter yet! We found Heath in the stands and walked over to sit with him. I noticed there were a number of people with umbrellas, so we brought ours too. I was so thankful we had it - or I would have surely looked like a boiled lobster afterwards. I was also very thankful we stopped for those large drinks at Quik Trip! As hot as we were, I could not imagine what it was like for those boys playing football in this heat!
On our way home from the game I noticed on a billboard that a new app is available for all that is happening at the Kansas State Fair. Since we will be visiting there next week, I downloaded it. Our granddaughter, Dacy is going to be participating in the 4H Horse Show, so once it had finished downloading I went to that section of the app. Wow - I was so surprised to see this:
After the game we headed back to Bentley. We are going to have an overnight guest. Miss Emmy is coming to spend the night with us. Before she arrived we ate a quick dinner and headed to Heath's to visit with all of the boys (Abram, Gideon and Roman). Jarred will drop Emmy here if needed.
Abram answered the door. After visiting with a few minutes and asking where the other boys were we headed downstairs. I asked him if he was still playing the cello. He is, and he played several songs for us. I always thought it would be great to play the cello but neither Chetopa nor Oswego offered orchestra, so I played the clarinet instead. Abram is taking some individual lessons this summer, and so is Gideon. Gideon is playing the violin, and he also played a couple of songs for us.
We didn't stay long as we'll be spending some time with them tomorrow, and Emerson will be at Bentley soon.
Emerson showed up soon after with her entourage of animals, babies and things to keep her occupied until bedtime. We played some and finally got her settled in for the night about 9:30 or so. She was excited to sleep on the floor, although we had planned to make a bed for her on the couch if she wanted. If she's happy with it, that's good.
Sunday, September 8, 2019 - Breakfast, Our Little KC Cheerleader, Church, Heath's to watch the Chiefs, then Back to Bentley
Dean and I stayed in bed until 6, then I went down and started the coffeepot. We didn't want to wake Emerson up too early but we need not have worried. She continued sleeping while we each had our two cups of coffee. When she woke up we had breakfast (I had not even given a thought to what to fix her before she arrived) but we made do with toast and some grapes. She'll have a doughnut when she gets to church too, so I'm sure she will do fine until lunchtime. Mommy (Andrea) had to leave early this morning to go out of state for work, so she and Daddy will be on their own until she returns. After getting her KC Chiefs Cheerleader outfit on, and gathering up all of her things, we headed to church where Jarred leads the Cafe at Pathway Church. Afterwards, Emerson went with Dad and we headed to Heath's. We are going over to watch the Chiefs play the Jaguars. They had ordered pizza so we had some of that and later Casey shared their peanut butter pie with us that she purchased at Carriage Crossing in Yoder. The pie was delicious. I've never tried peanut butter pie before but I wouldn't hesitate to buy or make one in the future. Yum. Dean is not a big fan of peanut butter so it's not something I would typically make or buy for us. It would be good for a family reunion or an RV rally though.
During the game the boys played right here beside us with Legos, and keeping an eye on the game too. Gideon is a HUGE Legos fan. This is the railroad track and cars he built from a Lego set he got for Christmas this past year. It was amazing!
I hope every game for the Chiefs goes as well as this one did - or better. There was a lot of cheering, hooping and hollering going on in the basement of their house this afternoon. So much more fun watching a game with more than just Dean and I sitting in front of the TV. Lol!
Afterwards we headed back to Bentley - tomorrow we will be moving to Hutchinson Kansas. We have several things we need to do before we visit the Kansas State Fair.
Thursday, September 5 - Garnett to Wichita, Afternoon Errands.
We left the North Garnett Lake Campground at 9:36am. It was a sunny 74 degrees. We meandered on several highways today. We headed south on 59, to 169, to County RD 58, to State Street, where we turned west on 54. We took it into to El Dorado, then headed south on 77 to 400 Highway, which we took to the west side of Wichita before turning off on 135th to our site for the next four nights. We arrived at All-Seasons RV Park at 1:16pm. It was nice seeing a little different scenery today.
We pulled into this rest stop near Toronto, KS for a break. The RV to our left was having some problems. Dean visited with him for a few minutes and gave him something he thought might help him. His travel trailer was new and this is his first outing - just him and his dog.
While Dean was inside using our facilities I walked down to take a picture of this sign. Very interesting information.
We had errands we wanted to run once we reached Wichita. Sam's was first on the list to refill our "nut" addiction. We eat quite a few almonds/mixed nuts as a snack - many evenings. It's hard to imagine that we can go through a big tub in 4-6 weeks - when we only use small containers to put them in - but with two of us they go fast.
I also needed to get a gift for a baby shower I am attending on Saturday. Our daughter-in-law, Andrea's, sister is expecting a baby in November. We made a stop at Bed, Bath & Beyond where I purchased a gift card to Buy Buy Baby. I had never heard of this store before. It is owned by Bed, Bath & Beyond. Then we were off to Walmart to buy a book for the baby. Everyone was asked to bring one with a note inside of who it was from. I thought it was a great idea.
Our errands done, we returned to Bentley. We were pretty worn out after our drive and all of our errand running. After dinner, Dean enjoyed some TV while I worked on the blog. Everytime I think I'm getting caught up we get so busy I find it hard to keep up. I'm thankful for everyone following along. It's important to me to try and document what we've done and where for Dean and I - something we can look back at and revisit our favorite places when we can no longer do this, to let family and friends know where we are and pass on information to others.
Again, we have an action packed weekend, so stay tuned.
Friday, September 6, 2019 - Grandparents Day; Emerson Visits Nana while Daddy & Papa play golf.
Dean and I are visiting Roman's (Heath & Casey's youngest son) school today for Grandparents Day. His school is just a short distance from the RV Park, so we allowed a decent amount of time to arrive, so we thought! Schools in the Wichita area are nothing like our hometown. It's not one school but sometimes two or three in the same vicinity and not always tied together. We went in one location - that wasn't it and we couldn't find a connecting road, so back out to the main road. We drove further south, but had to wait for what seemed like 10 minutes before someone allowed us to turn left in front of them into the school next door. Traffic was unbelievable as every grandparent in central Kansas must have been attending! Casey's parents sent a text and told us where they parked since all of the front entrance parking was full. By the time we finally got in, we had to finally park on the grass out front and to the south. It was chaos! Lol!
However, we finally made it to the front door - where a large group was waiting to get in the door, so that took a while as well. Each class had a schedule of three things to do. The school staff did a great job by dividing up the classes and where they would go first, which seemed to work very well. Roman's first stop was at a photo booth. Such a clever idea! They had a few props like oversized glasses and frames we could use. Mike & Brenda (Casey's parents) and Roman went in first, followed by Dean, Roman and I. They took four pictures, and printed them right there - 2 each, one for us and I assume one for Roman to take home. That was fun!
Our next stop was at Roman's room where we met his teacher Mrs. VanWyhe. There were a couple of things for him to do. First was to interview one of his grandparents and he chose his Grandpa Mike. He had Roman giggling as he wrote down his answers. Another one was to go around the room and find numbered papers to write the numbers in various formats. We enjoyed looking at different things he had done that were posted on the walls in and outside their room as well.
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| Pictures were taken of each of the kids in his classroom to "age" them as a "grandparent". Too funny!! |
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| Roman as a kid! |
The final stop for all of us was at the lunchroom where we each enjoyed a doughnut and water before we dropped Roman back at his room for the rest of the day.
Dean and I headed back to Bentley where we had a sandwich before Jarred showed up with Emerson a short time later. Emerson and I are going to have a play date while Papa and Daddy golf.
We had a great time playing alphabet bingo, Disney character Matching Card Game, and just random fun! It was amazing how quickly the time flew by. Before we knew it Daddy and Papa were back.
We visited for a bit before changing Emerson into her gymnastic bodysuit for her gym time at the Y. We followed Jarred there. It was fun watching her group go through the various exercises they had them do. She was having a great time.
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| These pictures were taken through a window where we could observe what they were doing, so forgive the shadows from the outside on the window. |
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| She's so fast I could barely get her in the picture. Lol! |
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| She loved running and jumping into this big vat of sponge type bricks. I wish I had her energy! |
Emmy is a happy girl and full of ENERGY! It was good for her to have time to burn some of it off. However, afterwards she was really TIRED! Since Mommy (Andrea) is helping friends get ready for Aunt Kelly's baby shower tomorrow, also went to dinner with them. I had not been to a Jason's Deli in quite sometime. I ordered the Italian Cruz Po'boy and it was delicious. Emmy was fading fast and after a dish of ice cream (which is free with your meal - yea!) we headed back to her house.
Emmy gave us a costume show from some of her favorite fun dresses, before sleep started calling her name - and fast!
We have another big day tomorrow!
Saturday, September 7, 2019 - Getting Ready for the Shower; Football Game; Visit with Heath & Family; Princess Emmy Spends the Night.
Today was busy from the time we got up until we fell into bed this evening.
I was up at 5 and started laundry - two loads this morning. After breakfast I painted my toenails - as I wanted to wear a pair of sandals to the baby shower. A very painstaking thing for me. I read somewhere several months ago that if you put vaseline on the skin around your toenails that any over polishing is easily removed, so I gave it a try - and it works. While it took longer to prepare for the job of painting them - the outcome was better than anytime I've tried to do this in the past.
Shower, fixing my hair, makeup and ironing clothes took a good part of my morning. I do love my little steam iron I bought awhile back. It works great - is really tiny and easy to store. After doing all of that I got everything ready for the shower gift. Shortly before 11, Dean dropped me off at Andrea and Kelly's cousins house where the baby shower is being held. He met Jarred at his house where they played darts before they had lunch together. Andrea spent yesterday evening helping Suzanne (and other family members, I'm sure) get prepared for today. Suzanne has a beautiful home.
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| Miss Emmy was quite the hostess and helper to Aunt Kelly for the day! |
The cake they had made was gorgeous and I was sure I had taken a picture of it but it's not on my phone, so evidently I only thought I took it. Who knows? It was so pretty though, and DELICIOUS. It was not overly sweet even though the piece I ate had quite a bit of icing (which I love). But, I'm getting ahead of myself - they also prepared a full lunch with chicken salad sandwiches on croissants, fruit cups, hummus and pita chips along with a choice of drinks (tea, lemonade water). It was all delicious.
Afterwards, Emmy helped Aunt Kelly open her gifts - well, maybe she opened them and then handed the gifts to Kelly. Either way she was a big helper!
Emerson is excited for her new cousin, Colen, to arrive in November. She will be a good cousin to him.
Dean picked me up a little after 1. We hurried back to the RV so I could change clothes - next up - a football game in Derby.
It was terribly hot so I put on my lightweight shirt and shorts and we hurried to Derby, making one quick stop to get something to drink. All that rushing and the game before Abram's was still going on - and it wasn't even the 4th quarter yet! We found Heath in the stands and walked over to sit with him. I noticed there were a number of people with umbrellas, so we brought ours too. I was so thankful we had it - or I would have surely looked like a boiled lobster afterwards. I was also very thankful we stopped for those large drinks at Quik Trip! As hot as we were, I could not imagine what it was like for those boys playing football in this heat!
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| Just to right of 44 you can see Peine on the back of the shirt above # 24 - that's Abram. |
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| I know you can't see her face well, but I was pretty sure this was our granddaughter Dacy. She has participated at the State 4-H Horse Show for 5 or 6 years now. She won events at the State Fair last year and this picture is from then. We are so proud of her. I did text her mom and dad to double check and Renae answered pretty quickly that yes, that was her! |
After the game we headed back to Bentley. We are going to have an overnight guest. Miss Emmy is coming to spend the night with us. Before she arrived we ate a quick dinner and headed to Heath's to visit with all of the boys (Abram, Gideon and Roman). Jarred will drop Emmy here if needed.
Abram answered the door. After visiting with a few minutes and asking where the other boys were we headed downstairs. I asked him if he was still playing the cello. He is, and he played several songs for us. I always thought it would be great to play the cello but neither Chetopa nor Oswego offered orchestra, so I played the clarinet instead. Abram is taking some individual lessons this summer, and so is Gideon. Gideon is playing the violin, and he also played a couple of songs for us.
We didn't stay long as we'll be spending some time with them tomorrow, and Emerson will be at Bentley soon.
Emerson showed up soon after with her entourage of animals, babies and things to keep her occupied until bedtime. We played some and finally got her settled in for the night about 9:30 or so. She was excited to sleep on the floor, although we had planned to make a bed for her on the couch if she wanted. If she's happy with it, that's good.
Sunday, September 8, 2019 - Breakfast, Our Little KC Cheerleader, Church, Heath's to watch the Chiefs, then Back to Bentley
Dean and I stayed in bed until 6, then I went down and started the coffeepot. We didn't want to wake Emerson up too early but we need not have worried. She continued sleeping while we each had our two cups of coffee. When she woke up we had breakfast (I had not even given a thought to what to fix her before she arrived) but we made do with toast and some grapes. She'll have a doughnut when she gets to church too, so I'm sure she will do fine until lunchtime. Mommy (Andrea) had to leave early this morning to go out of state for work, so she and Daddy will be on their own until she returns. After getting her KC Chiefs Cheerleader outfit on, and gathering up all of her things, we headed to church where Jarred leads the Cafe at Pathway Church. Afterwards, Emerson went with Dad and we headed to Heath's. We are going over to watch the Chiefs play the Jaguars. They had ordered pizza so we had some of that and later Casey shared their peanut butter pie with us that she purchased at Carriage Crossing in Yoder. The pie was delicious. I've never tried peanut butter pie before but I wouldn't hesitate to buy or make one in the future. Yum. Dean is not a big fan of peanut butter so it's not something I would typically make or buy for us. It would be good for a family reunion or an RV rally though.
During the game the boys played right here beside us with Legos, and keeping an eye on the game too. Gideon is a HUGE Legos fan. This is the railroad track and cars he built from a Lego set he got for Christmas this past year. It was amazing!
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| Abram standing |
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| Gideon and his Lego train kit. |
Afterwards we headed back to Bentley - tomorrow we will be moving to Hutchinson Kansas. We have several things we need to do before we visit the Kansas State Fair.
Thursday, September 12, 2019
August 30-31 & September 1-4, 2019 - Dean's Hometown of Garnett, KS
August 30-31 & September 1-4, 2019 - Visiting Dean's Hometown of Garnett, KS - Family Reunion, Visiting with Family and KC Trip to see Oswego Friends
Friday, August 30, 2019
We left Salina at 9:32am and arrived at Garnett's North City Lake RV Park at 1:16pm. We will be here for several days - first and foremost to attend a family reunion - Dean's mother's side of the family. His mother's maiden name was Peters. This will be the second reunion we have attended. I remember some names from two years ago and I've friended a few. Hopefully as time goes on I get to know them all better.
I reserved a site several weeks ago since this is Labor Day weekend. I'm glad I did as by the weekend all of the sites were full. Unfortunately we have a 30amp site (we had forgotten that's what they had here) and it was a challenge to remain comfortable with only one air conditioner running for the next six days. (Fortunately we had a few days of nicer temps). In addition there is no sewer hookup here - but we can deal with that. We can easily go a week using our holding tanks just by being careful with our water usage.
We needed to go to the grocery store, so once we were set up and we'd had lunch, that was next on our to do list. Dean loves 4 layer dessert with butterscotch pudding. That is the way my sister Crystal always makes it and it is also our family's favorite flavor versus chocolate. I'll also make Mexican chicken casserole. I haven't made it in a long time, and it's an easy dish.
We stopped by Dean's older brother Larry's to visit with him and Sandi for an hour or so before we returned to the RV for the evening. We were glad today was much cooler than the temperatures we've had the past several days.
After dinner, we watched a little TV and I made the crust for the dessert and then we were out for the night.
Saturday, August 31, 2019 - Peters Family Reunion
This morning I was up early as I had a lot to do. I finished making the four layer dessert, then showered and straightened up a bit before I made the Mexican Chicken casserole. We left for Richmond, KS (north of Garnett) a little after 10. We are supposed to eat at 11. Brett and Emilee were coming and planned to arrive a little early. They were there when we pulled up. We had a nice visit with many family members before everyone arrived and we could finally eat!!!
Oh my goodness there was so much food. It was a great afternoon and somewhere around 6-6:30 we finally headed back to Bentley. We were stuffed having snacked on things off and on all afternoon and early evening. We didn't need anything for dinner - but I think we did have a piece of 4 layer dessert before we went to bed.
It was a great day. Lots of fun, fellowship and great food!
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Since this was the first day we have not been busy or driving - we did nothing all morning. We were both just wasted I think and it was nice to just regroup a little. After lunch we took a ride around town (Dean enjoys this and I like to hear the stories he shares about growing up here), then stopped at Larry and Sandi's again.
I worked on the blog quite a bit today trying to get some posts done - knowing we are going to be busy in the next several days. It was a pretty quiet day and we enjoyed it.
Monday, September 2, 2019
This morning I wanted Dean to look at the soap dispenser at my kitchen sink. The pump for the container holding the soap quit working in the last several weeks. I really have missed it.
We pulled everything out from under the cabinets beneath the sink and we soon realized what the problem was. A portion of the pump was squirting the soap out and we had a pile of soap that had dropped below - fortunately I happened to have a pan sitting right here and 95% of it was in the pan. What a mess cleaning up that much soap would have been.
We got everything put back together and I'll continue using my little bottle of Dawn. I will call Pfiister to see if they can replace this part and hopefully it will do the trick.
Dean's sister Marie called mid-morning. She was going to stop by to visit for awhile if we would be here. We had no plans for the day, so we were very happy for her visit. It was fairly nice outside, so Dean attached our sunscreen to the awning and secured it so we could stay in the shade. With the breeze and the shade we were pretty comfortable. If we are busy inside it's one thing, but sometimes you just want to enjoy the outdoors.
While Marie was here a man walked up and wanted to look at our stained glass window in Bentley's door. I told him I really loved it; that we had bought it from a guy at a rally but I heard he was no longer selling them. It was at that time he turned and looked at me and said - I'm that man. Haha! I said, you are Richard? He said yes. He told us he was in the process of selling the business to someone but it had not been completed yet. He asked us where we were when we bought it. Dean told him we won a gift certificate he had donated for $50 at the Branson Heartland Rally a few years ago. He remembered us then. How funny, that we would run in to him here in Garnett.
Marie left not too long after that.
Later this evening, we pulled out the Fire Genie and enjoyed a nice fire outside.
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Our pantry and paper products were getting pretty low, so we made the short drive to Ottawa for some groceries at Walmart. By the time we drove back and put everything away it was time for lunch.
As we turned to head to the campground, I snapped this picture of the Auction they have every Tuesday in Garnett. Dean said he used to go with his dad when he was a kid, so it's been going on for quite a while. It's amazing the number of people that turn out for it every week. Someday when we are here I want him to take me so I can see what all they have.
I really do not remember what we did the rest of the day - after all, it's been 9 days ago. However, at 5:30 we met Dean's siblings and their spouses and Dean's sister-in-law Connie at El Jimador Mexican Restaurant in downtown Garnett. Connie (Dale's wife) works at the Anderson County Courthouse (right across the street from the restaurant). She had a table reserved for us when we arrived. The bad thing about being one of the first to arrive - we ate way too many chips, salsa and cheese dip before we even ordered our dinner. Lol! There seemed to be some confusion on where we were to meet as one couple went to the Chinese restaurant a block away and my husband wanted to go to the Mexican restaurant where the Chinese restaurant was located - but we finally all made it to the right location. We had a great meal and an even better visit. Unfortunately Dean's sisters Joyce and RuthAnn were not able to be here. We missed them and hopefully we can all get together at another time.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - A Trip to the City to see Oswego Friends
Many of you that read the blog know our good friends Donnie & Janie moved to the Kansas City area a few years ago to be near their son and his family. Janie's brother also lives nearby so it was a great move for them. We try to visit them whenever we are in the area. We made arrangements to drive to their home, arriving mid morning. It's only an hour drive and fortunately we hit the traffic just right and pretty much had an easy drive on I-35 to the turn off near their home. We had a good two hour visit at their home before we headed out to eat lunch at our new favorite restaurant (thanks to D & J) in Overland Park - Burnt Ends. Dean and I shared an order of burnt ends with two sides and it was just perfect for lunch. The cheesy corn was delicious, but this time we also tried the baked potato salad and while it was okay (we ate it all) we probably would not order it again. We thought it would be chunks of baked potato with cheese, bacon bits, etc. on the potatoes, but it tasted like mashed potatoes with all of those things stirred into it....not as good as we envisioned. However, we would definitely return for the burnt ends! Amazing!
We left around 2 to head back to Garnett.
After resting for a bit we made one last trip to see Larry and Sandi before we left - and then we hit Dairy Queen for our dinner - ice cream of course! Tomorrow we will be moving back west - so stay tuned.
Friday, August 30, 2019
We left Salina at 9:32am and arrived at Garnett's North City Lake RV Park at 1:16pm. We will be here for several days - first and foremost to attend a family reunion - Dean's mother's side of the family. His mother's maiden name was Peters. This will be the second reunion we have attended. I remember some names from two years ago and I've friended a few. Hopefully as time goes on I get to know them all better.
I reserved a site several weeks ago since this is Labor Day weekend. I'm glad I did as by the weekend all of the sites were full. Unfortunately we have a 30amp site (we had forgotten that's what they had here) and it was a challenge to remain comfortable with only one air conditioner running for the next six days. (Fortunately we had a few days of nicer temps). In addition there is no sewer hookup here - but we can deal with that. We can easily go a week using our holding tanks just by being careful with our water usage.
We needed to go to the grocery store, so once we were set up and we'd had lunch, that was next on our to do list. Dean loves 4 layer dessert with butterscotch pudding. That is the way my sister Crystal always makes it and it is also our family's favorite flavor versus chocolate. I'll also make Mexican chicken casserole. I haven't made it in a long time, and it's an easy dish.
We stopped by Dean's older brother Larry's to visit with him and Sandi for an hour or so before we returned to the RV for the evening. We were glad today was much cooler than the temperatures we've had the past several days.
After dinner, we watched a little TV and I made the crust for the dessert and then we were out for the night.
Saturday, August 31, 2019 - Peters Family Reunion
This morning I was up early as I had a lot to do. I finished making the four layer dessert, then showered and straightened up a bit before I made the Mexican Chicken casserole. We left for Richmond, KS (north of Garnett) a little after 10. We are supposed to eat at 11. Brett and Emilee were coming and planned to arrive a little early. They were there when we pulled up. We had a nice visit with many family members before everyone arrived and we could finally eat!!!
Oh my goodness there was so much food. It was a great afternoon and somewhere around 6-6:30 we finally headed back to Bentley. We were stuffed having snacked on things off and on all afternoon and early evening. We didn't need anything for dinner - but I think we did have a piece of 4 layer dessert before we went to bed.
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| Brett, Emilee and Tucker waiting to fill their plates. |
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| This little cutie was sitting across from us - her name is Analyse. Her dad is holding her, and the man behind her is her grandpa, Dennis Peters. Dennis' dad (who is also deceased) was a brother to Dean's mom. |
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| Dean's immediate family that was in attendance Front row, seated on floor: Jerry & Marie (Peine) Brock's grandsons Roark, Reed and Ridge Seated: Roanna Brock (Keith's wife), Larry & Sandi Peine (Dean's brother and wife), Marie Brock (Dean's sister), and Christie Smith (Marie's daughter) First row standing: Keith Brock (Marie's son), Brock Clifton and his dad Aaron, and wife and mom Tracy (Brock) Clifton (Marie's daughter); Les Florentin (husband to Tara--Larry & Sandi's daughter); Emilee, Me, Jerry Brock (Marie's husband) with Connie Peine (Dale's wife - Dean's brother who is deceased); Dean and Ron Smith (Christie's husband). Back row: JJ Peine (Larry's oldest son); Tucker (Brett's son) and Brett (Dean's son). If everyone was here - it would have been more than twice this many in the picture for just Dean and his siblings families. |
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Since this was the first day we have not been busy or driving - we did nothing all morning. We were both just wasted I think and it was nice to just regroup a little. After lunch we took a ride around town (Dean enjoys this and I like to hear the stories he shares about growing up here), then stopped at Larry and Sandi's again.
I worked on the blog quite a bit today trying to get some posts done - knowing we are going to be busy in the next several days. It was a pretty quiet day and we enjoyed it.
Monday, September 2, 2019
This morning I wanted Dean to look at the soap dispenser at my kitchen sink. The pump for the container holding the soap quit working in the last several weeks. I really have missed it.
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| I have this great soap dispenser but I have to keep my soap container on the counter now. If it can be fixed I'd sure like for it to be. |
We pulled everything out from under the cabinets beneath the sink and we soon realized what the problem was. A portion of the pump was squirting the soap out and we had a pile of soap that had dropped below - fortunately I happened to have a pan sitting right here and 95% of it was in the pan. What a mess cleaning up that much soap would have been.
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| See how the soap is squirting out in the pump above. |
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| This was just a smidgen of the soap that I had pumped out into the pan below for several weeks. |
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| I wish I had taken a picture of this --- one side was about half full of soap. |
Dean's sister Marie called mid-morning. She was going to stop by to visit for awhile if we would be here. We had no plans for the day, so we were very happy for her visit. It was fairly nice outside, so Dean attached our sunscreen to the awning and secured it so we could stay in the shade. With the breeze and the shade we were pretty comfortable. If we are busy inside it's one thing, but sometimes you just want to enjoy the outdoors.
While Marie was here a man walked up and wanted to look at our stained glass window in Bentley's door. I told him I really loved it; that we had bought it from a guy at a rally but I heard he was no longer selling them. It was at that time he turned and looked at me and said - I'm that man. Haha! I said, you are Richard? He said yes. He told us he was in the process of selling the business to someone but it had not been completed yet. He asked us where we were when we bought it. Dean told him we won a gift certificate he had donated for $50 at the Branson Heartland Rally a few years ago. He remembered us then. How funny, that we would run in to him here in Garnett.
Marie left not too long after that.
Later this evening, we pulled out the Fire Genie and enjoyed a nice fire outside.
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Our pantry and paper products were getting pretty low, so we made the short drive to Ottawa for some groceries at Walmart. By the time we drove back and put everything away it was time for lunch.
As we turned to head to the campground, I snapped this picture of the Auction they have every Tuesday in Garnett. Dean said he used to go with his dad when he was a kid, so it's been going on for quite a while. It's amazing the number of people that turn out for it every week. Someday when we are here I want him to take me so I can see what all they have.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019 - A Trip to the City to see Oswego Friends
Many of you that read the blog know our good friends Donnie & Janie moved to the Kansas City area a few years ago to be near their son and his family. Janie's brother also lives nearby so it was a great move for them. We try to visit them whenever we are in the area. We made arrangements to drive to their home, arriving mid morning. It's only an hour drive and fortunately we hit the traffic just right and pretty much had an easy drive on I-35 to the turn off near their home. We had a good two hour visit at their home before we headed out to eat lunch at our new favorite restaurant (thanks to D & J) in Overland Park - Burnt Ends. Dean and I shared an order of burnt ends with two sides and it was just perfect for lunch. The cheesy corn was delicious, but this time we also tried the baked potato salad and while it was okay (we ate it all) we probably would not order it again. We thought it would be chunks of baked potato with cheese, bacon bits, etc. on the potatoes, but it tasted like mashed potatoes with all of those things stirred into it....not as good as we envisioned. However, we would definitely return for the burnt ends! Amazing!
We left around 2 to head back to Garnett.
After resting for a bit we made one last trip to see Larry and Sandi before we left - and then we hit Dairy Queen for our dinner - ice cream of course! Tomorrow we will be moving back west - so stay tuned.
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
August 28 - 29, 2019 - Goodland and Salina, KS - Homeward Bound
August 28 - 29, 2019 - Goodland and Salina, KS - Homeward Bound
Wednesday, August 28, 2019 - Goodland, Kansas.
We left Estes Park at 9:05am (Mountain Time) and headed east toward Kansas. We took a slightly different route on the way home to bypass a portion of I-25. It was a long ride and I only took a few pictures since we were on this same road earlier this month.
We arrived at the Goodland KOA at 4:19pm (still on Mountain Time). It was a long drive today. I-70 was closed from Limon, CO to Siebert, CO. This required us to detour on 287 to 50, but somehow we missed 50 due to another road construction within the town we should have headed north on. We took another road to Burlington, CO. It wasn't a bad ride - just a long one for us.
We asked the gentleman at the KOA if he knew why it was closed. They are doing road construction on I-70 and he thought it might have to do with that, but he wasn't sure.
We pulled into our site, #62. Once we were set up and had the air conditioners on, which we really needed here at 85 degrees - we left to get fuel and stop at the grocery store. We had run out of bottled water. We like taking it in the truck while traveling.
After those errands, we had to take a driving tour of Goodland. Neither of us had ever visited here before. One thing we both noticed and commented about was the brick streets that were very smooth and easy to drive on in the downtown area. That was very impressive.
And of course we had to drive by to see "The Big Easel".
Once we returned I did another load of clothes - trying to make sure everything is clean before we are without sewer hookups soon.
It was a quiet restful evening, knowing we had to travel again tomorrow.
Thursday, August 29, 2019 - Salina, KS
We left Goodland at 9:47am and pointed the truck and Bentley east, hoping to make better time today....and we did; but not before we had breakfast at The Bricks by Meg.
This was a very nice building. The metal ceiling is original to the building. It has a full basement as well. Someone has taken very good care of this structure over the years. A big plus for the community.
The food was pretty good. I had a biscuit, and a scrambled egg covered with gravy, with bacon and hash browns on the side. Unfortunately, the hash browns had onions in them. I picked most of them out and mixed them in the gravy. They were pretty good that way. I really wish I liked onions.
Again, I only took a few pictures, since we've already covered this area earlier this month in our travels.
Wednesday, August 28, 2019 - Goodland, Kansas.
We left Estes Park at 9:05am (Mountain Time) and headed east toward Kansas. We took a slightly different route on the way home to bypass a portion of I-25. It was a long ride and I only took a few pictures since we were on this same road earlier this month.
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| I love these old homesteads on the prairies. |
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| leaving Colorado |
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| back in Kansas |
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| The big easel in Goodland, KS |
We arrived at the Goodland KOA at 4:19pm (still on Mountain Time). It was a long drive today. I-70 was closed from Limon, CO to Siebert, CO. This required us to detour on 287 to 50, but somehow we missed 50 due to another road construction within the town we should have headed north on. We took another road to Burlington, CO. It wasn't a bad ride - just a long one for us.
We asked the gentleman at the KOA if he knew why it was closed. They are doing road construction on I-70 and he thought it might have to do with that, but he wasn't sure.
We pulled into our site, #62. Once we were set up and had the air conditioners on, which we really needed here at 85 degrees - we left to get fuel and stop at the grocery store. We had run out of bottled water. We like taking it in the truck while traveling.
After those errands, we had to take a driving tour of Goodland. Neither of us had ever visited here before. One thing we both noticed and commented about was the brick streets that were very smooth and easy to drive on in the downtown area. That was very impressive.
And of course we had to drive by to see "The Big Easel".
Once we returned I did another load of clothes - trying to make sure everything is clean before we are without sewer hookups soon.
It was a quiet restful evening, knowing we had to travel again tomorrow.
Thursday, August 29, 2019 - Salina, KS
We left Goodland at 9:47am and pointed the truck and Bentley east, hoping to make better time today....and we did; but not before we had breakfast at The Bricks by Meg.
This was a very nice building. The metal ceiling is original to the building. It has a full basement as well. Someone has taken very good care of this structure over the years. A big plus for the community.
The food was pretty good. I had a biscuit, and a scrambled egg covered with gravy, with bacon and hash browns on the side. Unfortunately, the hash browns had onions in them. I picked most of them out and mixed them in the gravy. They were pretty good that way. I really wish I liked onions.
Again, I only took a few pictures, since we've already covered this area earlier this month in our travels.
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| Farming Country! |
We arrived at the Salina KOA at 2:18PM. We are now back on Central Time. When we were in West Yellowstone, a lady working in the concession area for the IMAX theatre found out we were from Kansas and asked if we ever stayed at the Salina KOA. Joyce and I both said we had. I told her we were stopping there on our way back as well. She wanted to know if I would give a note to her friends who worked there and scribbled a note on a piece of paper. After we arrived and had checked in, I asked if the people mentioned in the note were working. He told me no one by that name worked there or had worked there. Interesting. I carried that note all this time, and there was no one to receive it.
Once we were parked, we took a tour of Salina. While we've been here before we really have not taken the time to see much of the city. I've attended numerous meetings here over the years, but we usually went to the hotel, a nearby restaurant for dinner and back to the hotel. Several years ago, my daughter lived in Galva, KS and Salina is where our first grandson Logan David was born. We did happen to drive by the hospital. What a wonderful day that was!
We returned to the RV Park where I continued doing laundry most of the evening. Tomorrow we will be back in the Southeast Kansas area.
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