Life's Journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, totally worn out, shouting "Wow...What a Ride!"

Friday, July 31, 2020

Why Are You Here???

May 28-July 31, 2020

When the heat gets in the 90’s we get that question a lot when campers find out we’re full-time RV’ers. A quick explanation of that my older parents live locally and it makes sense. While IL is not where we’d pick if we didn’t want to help my folks out, but we do, so we’re here for the summers, for the time being, keeping an eye on how the corn and soybeans do. This summer we haven’t been taking drives with my folks like in years past, instead, we’re doing shopping for them and helping them out around their house.

We finally purchased a shade screen for our awning, it’s made a world of difference and we’re able to sit outside most days.



Birds are enjoying our new birdbath!!

Woodpeckers enjoying part of the smorgasbord

We’ve had visits from a couple of our Grand Design friends:

Mike & Kim stopped by for a couple of days in early June. Originally they were supposed to be on their way to Alaska but that’s been put off for a year. While we had to work most of their visit we did enjoy getting to know them better.

Joe and Brenda stopped in for a visit, they had just closed on the sale of their home in MO. Welcome to the full-time lifestyle. They came with questions, we gave them what information we could. They are now hosting in the MO state park system.

Our friends Frank & Pat, who trained us for our volunteer position here at Lake Shelbyville, were in the park for a 2-week visit. We were invited on the last ride in their boat before they turned it over to its new owner.


Then our friends Steve and Cathy came for a week visit, we last saw them at a brewery in the Denver area last fall. It was great to spend time with them, lots of laughter and games of Dave’s game-a fun card game, and no not named after Dave though he’d like to believe it is. We took them to the regular tourist traps.

Doesn’t everyone want their picture taken if front Gay’s IL historic two-story outhouse?

Casey IL-Small Town Big Things- is always a fun stop!! We found a few new things.







We’ve enjoyed getting together with Curt and Glenda whenever we can, usually food, beer and cards are involved. Earlier this season they brought over some morel mushrooms that none of us had ever tried. WOW!! They were so good, hope we can someday get a chance to have them again. Thanks so much guys!!





Dave celebrated his 60th birthday in June, we had a wonderful evening with Curt and Glenda, celebrating the occasion. Thanks for the thoughtful bag full of “gifts”. 

We were able to pick both strawberries and blueberries this year, our extra freezer is now half full of fish\shrimp and half full of berries.



During the highest temps this summer our bedroom AC motor bit the dust. Dave couldn’t find an exact match but he found one he thought might work. It was a day late in arriving, as soon as we were notified it was delivered we were on the road to my folk's house where all our packages go. Within 30 minutes of being back home, Dave had the new motor in and the bedroom was cooling down. Thankfully our wind tunnel fan had kept the temps tolerable during the nights without the AC.

We’ve had the pleasure of becoming friends with some locals who walk the campground every day. Jeff and Patty live ½ mile away in a house they’ve been in 40 years. Our friendship started because Dave can never pass by a dog without saying hi. Odie is a therapy dog who has been out of work this summer since visits aren’t allowed this year. We’ve enjoyed a few meals together and clocked many miles walking together this summer. We look forward to more fun times with them over the upcoming years.

We’ve kept busy volunteering 2 days a week. We usually show up at the visitor center gardens at 8am and put in an hour taking care of the garden and making sure the hummingbird and bird feeders are filled. It’s nice to see all the flowers this summer, last summer we started the big job of trying to rescue a garden that hadn’t been tended to in years. A few more years and it should be spectacular.


We then load up our truck, we’ve been given exclusive use of one of the trucks for the summer, with life jackets and laminated copies of signage for the different bulletin boards around the complex. We then head out to the spillway, beaches, and boat ramps making sure the life jackets are in good shape and replacing the missing ones. One of the USACE slogans is “life jackets worn, nobody mourns”, all boat ramps and beaches have a loaner life jacket station. We also pick up supply orders from the volunteer cleaners and mowers. On Thursday our routine is basically the same, except we deliver supplies and fuel to the cleaners and mowers. We usually drive about 100 miles each day. In August we’ll be helping out at our big beach and boat ramp location, manning the attendant booth reminding guests, about no alcohol in the beach area, no food and drinks at the beach, and the boaters will be reminded about the boat raft policy. Our beaches have been busy and too many times by the end of the day they have lots of garbage on them, there is also a limit of how many boats can tie up together, which is another thing that’s been violated quite frequently this summer. Since we opened the campground has been full on the weekends and we’re seeing a lot more campers in during the week. 


A few pics from our drives around the lake. 
                                                                                        

Until next time...


14 comments:

  1. You two are sure enjoying your time there and helping the folks is a benefit being in the area. Beautiful COE, sounds like Odie has you two to look forward to for repeat visits. Stay well and keep having fun!

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    1. While it's not where we'd pick we make the most of it, though it's a little difficult this year.

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  2. Awesome that you have so many friends stop by, you always seem to have a great time with Curt and Glenda!

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    1. We are so fortunate in all the friends we've made along the way, so grateful for their visits. We do enjoy our time with Curt and Glenda.

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  3. I know how it is with family. We’ve been in CA almost all year. Might need to be here next year too. What a beautiful area you’re in. Lot’s of flowers and fruit and friends!

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    1. I know you've been around the family lots too this past year, we do what we must, sure beats the old way of life though.

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  4. Enjoyed the update. Sounds like the summers there are working out for you even though temps may be a bit warm and muggy at times. Can't believe it's already August. Seems the summer is passing quickly.

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    1. It was a warm summer but we did make the most of it, fingers crossed we can find a pontoon boat next summer.

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  5. Happy Happy Birthday Dave. So envious of how early you were able to retire and get on the road. Also amazed at how many people you visit with. We were on the road full time for 9 years and I can count on about one hand the number of people we met and kept in touch with. But we only stayed 2 weeks in most places during that time. Wow do those berries look great! Things must be really producing in Illinois. And WOW that corn! I ask myself every day what in the world I am doing in Virginia in this unprecedented heat – over 90 daily for 6 weeks. Hotter here than in Florida. But my plans for the summer got cancelled early during the pandemic and it seems pretty difficult to be traveling at this point. Sure wish I had made it to Maine before this shut down.

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    1. From the day we met, Dave talked about retiring early, amazed at times we pulled it off, though there were lots of sacrifices along the way. Between the blog, Facebook and Grand Design we're fortunate have made some great friends, and thankful some of them stopped by this summer. ME would have been so different, from our friends in VT so much was shut down and those from out of state got a lot of cold shoulders. I ask the same thing in IL during the summers, then I remember and we're grateful to be able to spend time with my folks and then have the winters to play.

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  6. While it might be toasty warm there, I think I would suffer through just for the blueberries and strawberries! Good ones are tough to find these days at the grocery store. Those look incredible. Casey seems like a fun stop and it looks like Dave has good taste in beer - we loved Alchemist! Speaking of which, Happy Belated Birthday! Stay well!

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    1. Thanks, love the mid west produce especially the berries, still enjoying them. Casey is a cute town, we take all of our visitors there on their first visit. Dave does enjoy his locally crafted beers.

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  7. Not sure how I didn't see this since you are on my blog roll. Are you going to do an Aug 1 to Sept 30 soon? Mmmmmm those berries. And you did all that picking - Wow! I had no idea Illinois was such a berry capital. I'll love finding out what you do with all those frozen berries - hmmm, ice cream, pie, shortcake. Ok enough.

    I'm seriously envying you so many friends visiting. Being alone and stuck in Virginia (read that HOT) during a pandemic is really taking its toll on me. I know your parents really appreciate your help especially now. Will they be going somewhere else for the winter? With my father's death I have no parents left to worry about but that makes me an orphan I guess.

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    1. You didn't miss it, I was having issues with my comments-operator error, as I'll talk about in my next post. Love the mid west produce, a real perk being here all summer.

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