Summer of 2022 Highlights

 May 1-September 14, 2022

Yep, I took the summer off from blogging and following blogs. For the most part, the laptop was only opened to use Quicken.

On May 1st we celebrated 9 years of full timing in an RV. We still love the lifestyle and have no desire to change. In June we celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary and Dave turned 62.

We certainly have enjoyed our new site this summer, privacy with some shade and satellite service. 

My brother and his wife stopped in for a few days, nice to see them, we’ll see them later this year in TX. Our son Tom and his life partner Kanik came for a quick visit, we'll see them soon in CO.

Andy & Kati

Mom, Dad, Kanik, and Tom

We enjoyed our visits with family. 

Mom and Dad

Faye with cousin Don

Cousins Dennis and Nancy

Cousins Rhonda, Tom, and Dylan

Friends have stopped by, and we weren’t good about getting pictures. Joe and Brenda stopped by on their way east, and Susan and Buster dropped in for a couple of nights but previous obligations got in the way of visiting. Dave’s fishing buddy Pat stopped in overnight as he was passing through, we’ll see him in TX this winter. Rick and Gail, who we last saw in Yuma last winter stopped in for a few days, we enjoyed catching up and we introduced them to Casey-Small Town Big Things.

Gail and Rick

Unfortunately, a few visits didn’t materialize, we are sorry we couldn’t catch up with our friends Curt and Glenda, and friends DuWayne and Jackie. 

Our friends Vic and Phyllis are gate attendants here so we get together as much as possible for afternoons of cards. We enjoyed dog-sitting Snoop a couple of times this summer but sadly he recently passed over the Rainbow Bridge. 

Some scenes from our volunteer days here at Lake Shelbyville. 

This summer we spent some time in Saint Louis so my mom could have surgery on both eyes. Each surgery required a pre-surgery visit with the doctor, for surgery an overnight visit was required since she had a follow-up visit with the doctor the morning after. Dave and I spent our waiting time exploring Forest Park right next door to the hospital. 

On one of our visits to Forest Park, we went to the St Louis Zoo, where we found animals and flowers. Admission to most things is free, what a beautiful place to spend time, lots of people walking, running and biking, there are pickleball and tennis courts and soccer fields and that's just what we saw. The place is huge with parking all over the park. 

I did get out and pick strawberries this year.

Dave enjoyed many a BLT this summer thanks to Wayne and Charlie who dropped off numerous tomatoes and other summer produce. 

Fun at the Hunan Restaurant with Vic and Phyllis.

Dave with owner Mae

We found a great butcher in the local Amish community. 

Beef short ribs

Our favorite pizza from Monical's. 

We also visited our favorite Italian and Mexican restaurants but alas no pictures from them.

This summer we did a thing, we brought recreational property on the Tennessee River. Friends recently bought there and it’s an area we’ve talked about checking out for years. When our friends said the last land sale in the area would be happening we decided to go for it. We now own a 1/2 acre alongside the river, and we have 60’ of river frontage and road frontage, about 270’ deep. RV’s only, no permanent enclosed structures. Power, water, and Wi-Fi are at the road, we will have to put in a septic system. By March the hope is to have all the utilities in, the shoreline rocked, and a temporary pad. Long term we will have a large concrete pad with hookups for 2 RVs, and an open pole barn covering it. We are near Clifton, 1/2 hour away is Savannah TN, we’re an hour south of I40 about 1/2 way between Memphis and Nashville. Rolling hills and a small community both remind us of VT.

from the road, survey stakes circled

our river frontage

our road frontage

we'll build something very similar 

us with Anne and Gary

It's been a good summer but it's time for us to head west, on the 25th we should arrive in Colorado Springs. We plan to check out a few of the CO state parks so we'll be in the state for almost a month. 

Until next time...

Back In IL

On April 1st we started our trip back to IL. With an eye to the weather we headed east, our first stop was 348 miles away at Elephant Butte Lake State Park in Truth or Consequences NM. Our first winter on the road we stayed at this same park, 8.5 years later it’s still a nice park. As with many places the water levels are way down.

site 51

                                                                                                        

The next morning we were up and on our way, 324 miles later we were pulling into the Tucumcari KOA. We overnighted here in the fall of 2018, while here then we had visited a nice Mexican Restaurant, once again we enjoyed a meal at Del’s, nice to see they are still around.

site 5 w/e

The next morning we were up and on our way, with storms coming behind us we east to Foss Lake State Park in Foss OK. Our friends Curt and Glenda recommended this place and what a beautiful park this was. We stayed in the Cedar Point Campground, with some awesome lake views from our site. We stayed two nights here, the storms came through and we were thankful not to be driving that day.

Site 3

All too soon our two nights were up and we were once again making tracks, an early departure, and 384 miles later we were pulling into the Springfield/Route 66 KOA in Springfield MO. A decent place for an overnight.

Site 68

On 4/6 we hitched up for the last leg of our trip to IL. Our friends Vic and Phyllis were a few hours ahead of us, so they were tasked with getting the gates open for all of us. 353 miles later we were pulling into Forrest W Bo Woods in Sullivan IL, the gates were locked but our friends saw us arriving and soon had the gates open for us. This year we have a different site, we are in site 113 with lots of privacy. 

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                        

traditional first night back pizza

          

scrounged up some firewood

So what have we been up to since we got here?

Of course, there are flowers to be bought and planted.

flower garden started

                                                                                            

                                                                             

We are the back left site-lots of privacy

                                                                         

                                                                            

                                            

                                                                                            

There are birds galore.

                                                                                        

We enjoyed them until late April when the IL DNR put out a bulletin asking folks not to feed the birds in an attempt to combat the Avian Bird Flu. So the feeders are down until the end of May, though we do still have all the hummingbird feeders up, IL DNR said those feeders are okay. 

We have spent time with my folks, we’ve been making dinner for them once a week and leaving the leftovers at their place. We had to take my mom to Saint Louis to a glaucoma specialist, she will be having surgery in both eyes, separately, this summer. So there will be a few more trips to Saint Louis this summer.

Of course, we’ve been volunteering. Our title here is JOATS, Jack/Jill of all trades, are two main focuses are making sure the cleaners and mowers have the supplies they need, and our loaner life jacket program-making sure there are life jackets at all improved boat ramps and all beaches. Our other jobs are working on the butterfly garden and filling in where needed. It’s been hard to get the garden cleaned up as we’ve had so much rain this April, but little by little we're getting there. After getting our life jackets and supply inventories done, it was time to get everything out where needed. Two of the USACE Lake Shelbyville campgrounds opened on 4/21, so we’ve been making sure the volunteers have the supplies they need. The boat ramps are now stocked with life jackets and we’re getting ready to open another one of the campgrounds on 5/5. The last two campgrounds will open in mid-May. 

Plans have been made with our friends Vic and Phyllis to get out and explore a few places around here. We know friends have plans to come through the area, and we're looking forward to seeing all of them. 

One of the days in April I turned 62, I now qualify for a Senior America the Beautiful pass, which gives us 1/2 price camping at COE parks. That's cause for celebration!!

 Until next time...