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, October 30, 2020

Finishing Out Our IL Summer

 

August 1-October 29, 2020

It’s been almost 3 months since my last post but not much has changed. Our stay here in IL is winding down, we leave here on Friday, 10/30, and head towards TX. We will once again be selling Christmas trees, this year at a different lot, we’ll be in Carrollton. We'll make a few stops along the way and catch up with some friends we haven't seen in a few years.

So here’s a catch up of the last few months.

We enjoyed time with Curt and Glenda before they left just after Labor Day. Lots of afternoons playing cards and the boys drinking beer.


 
                                                                                    

                                         Celebrating Curt's 70th Birthday-hope the video plays

We did get one day of geocaching in, Curt reached his 500th geocache, go Curt!!


                                                                                    


Glenda of the corn!!
                                                                                    
                                                                                    

                                                                            
                                                                                        
About to find The Dashinly Handsome Cache
                                                                                        
                                                                                 
#500 for Curt!! 

We did get out on the lake one day, Curt and Glenda’s grandson came for a visit, they rented a pontoon boat for an afternoon and invited us to join them. 

                                                                                    

                                                                                   

 
                                                                                
We miss them but wish them well as they start a new adventure as homeowners. They will be living in Eloy AZ, in a Robson Ranch community, so we’ll see them when we spend our winters in AZ. We first met them in 10/2014, since then we’ve had some great adventures with them and look forward to many more.

We’ve been busy helping my folks with various projects around their house. Dave enjoyed taking pictures of the flowers in my mom’s garden.

                                                                                    

                                                                                    








 
The monarchs were late in arriving but we are so glad they did.                                                                       




                                                                                    
We’ve been taking care of the Visitor Center garden this summer, recently we’ve finished cutting it back. During August we spent time helping out at the dam day-use area. In order to avoid giving out lots of tickets, we were tasked with informing entering guests of the rules of the beach and some of the boating rules when boaters came in. Otherwise, we are out delivering supplies or making sure the life jackets are in good shape and sanitizing them once a week.                                                             

Our friends Vic and Phyllis are gate attendants here at Bo Woods, a couple of times this summer they entrusted us with their dog Snoop, we sure enjoyed having him over for sleepovers. We’ve enjoyed some fun evenings of Dave’s Game with Vic and Phyllis and hope they will be back here next summer. While I never got a picture of Vic and Phyllis we did get a few of Snoop when he was over for the night. 




                                                       

Our site here at Forrest W Bo Woods has served us well this summer and we look forward to returning to it next summer. 


                                                                            








                                                                                    


Dave has enjoyed all the birds hanging around our feeders this summer. 






                                                                                        

                                                                                



We've seen lots of pelicans hanging around the lake.


                                                                                        



Some of the wildlife we've seen as we make our rounds around the lake. 


                                                                                    

                                                                                        
                                                                                    

We've enjoyed the IL fall colors this year. 

                                                                                





Dave has been keeping an eye on the crops, the harvest is now just about done with just a few fields remaining. 
                                                   
                                                                                    

 
                                
                                                                                      
                                                                                        
 


We've enjoyed a number of meals at the Hunan restaurant in Mattoon IL. If you've never seen Dave enjoy wasabi here's what you're missing. 
                                                                                    
                                                                                    
 
Hope our trip south isn't too exciting. 

We lost Dave's Uncle George recently. 6 weeks from a diagnosis of stage 4 stomach cancer he was gone. We are grateful that he had his partner of 42 years, Michael, to provide him with the best care possible.  We are forever thankful we made our trip east in early 2019 where we spent a few days visiting with him. We will miss our regular phone calls with him. See you on the other side Uncle George. 


 
Sunday 10/25 the campground closed, we, along with the other volunteers are the only ones here now.




   Until next time...