May 16, 2010 - Home

We left Huber Heights/Dayton early this morning and made our way thru Ohio, West Virginia and home to Pennsylvania:

Andy and I have been to many states and still agree that Pennsylvania is one of the most beautiful.

The turnpike bridges:

The wind turbines:

My girlfriend Sue and her husband, Steve:

They were very active in the Bedford Village but Sue lost her life in a car accident in October of 2008 – such a wonderful person and I am so glad that this picture is there.

We arrived home and were surprised by our friends and family.  My girlfriends opened up and cleaned my house and my cousin turned on all the utilities and worked on the yard.  Then they had a little party for us and cooked supper – I am doubly/triply blessed!!!!    Thank you all so much.

Our little Dusty freaked when we brought him into the house – poor kitty!  So back to the motorhome he went. (See below)

It is good but strange to be home.  Thank you all for following along with us.  Our plans right now are to be home for the summer and leave sometime late August/early September.   I will not be posting much during the summer but will start up regularly when our journey continues.  Stay tuned – :-).

Miles Traveled: 490 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Ohio: Kitridge Road; Bath Road; SR-4; I-70; I-270; I-70; I-470

West Virginia: I-470; I-70

Pennsylvania: I-70; I-76; I-81; SR-125; US-209; Chestnut Street

Note:

Sorry it took me so long to finalize this part of our journey.  Since we got home we have been cleaning the motorhome, organizing the house (there will definitely be a BIG YARD SALE this summer), and getting caught up with friends and family.  For those of you in the area, please feel free to stop by.  For those who are traveling, give us a call.  Our driveway is open.

Dusty has gotten accustomed to the house and just loves running thru the place.  He has become a lap cat – which he wasn’t in the motorhome – how cute.  And he is just fascinated with looking at all the birds outside (and catching the bugs that get inside – LOL!).

My blog views has almost reached 20,000 and that does not include the regular emails that are sent.  WOW!  It has been great having you all come along on our dream with us!   And we hope to have many more!

God bless!

May 14-15, 2010 – Dayton Hamvention

We had a great time the past two days at the Dayton Hamvention.  For those of you who do not know what it is is, well, it is like a HUGH Mall/Flea Market/Rally for Amateur Radio Operators.  We did a lot of walking thru all the vendors.  Andy picked up a few items that he needed and got a lot of information to check out.

On Friday night, we met up with Gary, Steve, Kelly and Ed for dinner and then we all returned to our RV.  We had a great time chatting and getting caught up with old friends.

Tomorrow we begin our long drive home to Pennsylvania.

May 13, 2010 – Travel to Dayton

We had a short journey today to the Huber Heights Mobile Home and RV Park in Huber Heights (near Dayton).  After setting up, we went to the Salem Mall – where we will park and get the shuttle and then to the Arena for our tickets.

And we had a great surprise tonight when Gary and Steve (good friends from home) stopped by to see us.  It was great to see them and get caught up with each other.

Tomorrow the Hamvention starts – Andy has been here a few times but it is my first time so it will be interesting.

 

Miles Traveled: 66 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Ohio: SR-732; SR-725; US-127; I-70; SR-4; Kitridge Road

May 11-12, 2010 – Hueston Woods State Park

The past two days we have just been hanging out and dodging the rain drops – LOL.  I did get the MH cleaned up, restocked and laundry done.  Andy helped Tom set up an antennae for his ham radio.

And a great campfire tonight with Tom and Karen.  Hopefully we will see them again down the road.

One of the many blessing of this trip has been all the great people we have met and have seen and hope to see further on down the road.

Tomorrow we head to Dayton for the Hamvention so stay tuned.

May 9-10, 2010 Travel to Ohio

Happy Mother’s Day!

Sunday

We left our little spot today and headed east.  Our first stop was to get gas and the clerk gave me a rose for Mother’s Day – wasn’t that nice – :-))

Our nest stop was at the Visitor Center in Illinois to pick up a map and when I signed the guestbook, I was told I was a winner – a $10.00 gift certificate to Kroger’s – YAHOO!!!  How about that – :-)))).    Two presents this morning and it wasn’t even 10 AM.

Our travels continued thru Missouri, crossing the swollen Mississippi:

 

Thru Illinois and into Indiana.   We traveled mostly thru small towns and farmland – Beautiful!

We overnighted at Wal-Mart in Bedford, Indiana.

Monday

We continued our journey thru Indiana into Ohio – more farmland and forests:

And we arrived at Hueston Woods State Park near Oxford, Ohio.   So in the past few days, we travel thru four states – WOW!  We are also now in the eastern time zone – haven’t been in this time zone since 12/08.

We met one of the campground host couples – Karen and Tom who are also Escapees and spent the afternoon and evening talking about our travels – great couple, great chatting and great campfire (Thank, Tom for the wood).  That is what this life is all about – :-)))).

And the storms came in late tonight!

 

Miles Traveled: 495 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Missouri: SR-T; US-60: I-57

Illinois: I-57; US-50

Indiana: US-50; I-275

Ohio: I-275; SR-128; SR-27; SR-73; SR-177

May 6-8, 2010 – Lake Wappapello

Thursday

We did a few things around the MH this morning and this afternoon, we explored some of the area around Lake Wappapello.

We came upon this sign:

They weren’t kidding.  This is the boat launch area:

Guess we won’t even have a chance to disobey this sign – LOL:

  The spillway (and the water was running fast):

Above the dam:

What a beautiful place.  The visitor center is open on Saturday and Sunday so we will check it out then. 

We made our final reservations today for the Albuquerque New Mexico Balloon Fiesta in October.  Isn’t that exciting – :-))).   We are also hoping to get on a balloon crew to help out so stay tuned…  YEA!!!

And another great campfire night!

Friday

Today is our 22nd Anniversary soooo Happy Anniversary to us (and to my niece, Christy and her husband, Greg). 

We have also decided that today would be Dusty’s birthday (based on the vet’s age assumptions – :-)) so today our little Dusty is one year old!

Our journey today took us exploring some of the county roads – this is beautiful country and I am still not use to all the greenery – :-))).   But it was very windy due to a cold front coming thru.   As I write this evening, it is stormy, windy and getting colder.  Looking forward to cooler days – it is getting too hot for me – LOL!!!

Speaking of summer weather, it will be very different for us this summer in PA.  Since 2007, we spent 2 summers in Alaska and one in New England.   I enjoy the 60-70 degrees days and can tolerate 80-85 but hotter than that – oh my, it will be interesting.

We celebrated tonight by having dinner at one of the local restaurants – Fisherman’s Net – great catfish!

No campfire, due to the wind – :-((.

Saturday

Today was hang out day so that is what we did…LOL.    I did some beading – still finishing some of the projects I started at bead week.   Andy started playing with Vista’s voice recognition software – He has been talking about getting a voice recognition program and I found out that the one in Vista is rated high so we will be checking it out…

We also spent some time walking around the campground, talking with our neighbors and the campground host.  The hosts here are great and love to chat with everyone.

The weather was beautiful, the campfire great – oh my, life doesn’t get any better than this.

We are traveling on tomorrow.  We were going to go to Tennessee and Kentucky but because of the flooding, we have decided to head north to Illinois and east to Indiana and Ohio.  We have two days of good weather before more storms come thru so we are taking advantage of it..

So stay tuned.

May 5, 2010 – Travel to Lake Wappapello

Our travels today took us through southern Missouri on US-60 (mostly). A beautiful route passing a number of small towns and state and national forests as well as Amish country:

We are camped at Redman Creek Campground by Lake Wappapello – an Army Corp of Engineers campground - full hookups for $10.00 (WOW) and large sites:

After getting set up and checking out the campground, we enjoyed another great campfire – :-))).

Miles Traveled:

Routes Traveled: 230 Miles

Missouri: US-65B; US-65; US-60; SR-T

Until tomorrow……

May 2-4, 2010 – More Branson, Missouri

Sunday’s Road Trip

Today our travels took us to Table Rock Dam Area.   First we visited the Fish Hatchery and Visitor Center below the dam:

How about the size of this fish – WOW:

From there we stopped at the Corp of Engineer’s Visitor Center at the top of the dam:

And the White River after the Dam:

Very interesting.   This lake is one of the largest in Missouri and it extends for quite a few miles.   There are a number of Corps campgrounds all around it and if we come back, we will check on a few of them.

The rest of the day was on and off rain and I did some shopping at Wal-Mart, then we just hung out.

Monday was an absolutely beautiful day – no rain, blue skies and sun.  So this morning, we took our Sea-Eagle kayak out and went for a paddle:

We paddled out to Lake Taneycomo but did not stay long because of the currents but we did see 2 blue herons – Beautiful and HUGH birds….

And this evening we went to see the show – Baldknobbers – one of the oldest shows in Branson.  Great time and highly recommended.

Tuesday, today, was another beautiful day…  I did the laundry and we both did some things around the motorhome.  Tomorrow we are heading out so stay tuned.

 

Our Dusty:

Where did that ball go?

Oh, too much work to get it, I think I will take a nap – :-)

 

(He is our entertainment – LOL!)

April 30 – May 1, 2010 – Storms and Branson Landing

On Friday we just hung out and watched the storms in the afternoon and evening.  Our area made it thru ok – :-)).

This morning we decided to check out Historic Branson and Branson Landing.  Our first stop was the trolley ride – :-)):

 

Branson Landing – lots of shops:

And a water display:

We took a walk along the boardwalk that borders the river and found these neat flowers:

And had lunch at the neat little Irish Pub – MMMMM.  

In downtown Branson, there is this HUGH 5&10 Store – so much neat stuff!!   And the memories it brought back – oh my.   (If you ever get to Branson, this is a must stop.)

More storms coming thru tonight – I hope this is it!!!