Oct 7th 2020

 We have been at Eric and Heathers since Sept 27th. The weather has  been amazing!! mid 70's to 8o's everyday. going to head out on Friday the 9th. Going as far as Pocatello Id for the night then stop at a Walmart or somewhere for the night before going thru Salt Lake City on I- 15 on sunday morning. . Heard it is supposed to be a nightmare. Then headed for the first of the big 5 NPs in Utah. Starting with Arches,-Canyonland-Capitol Big Reef -Bryce and Zion. very excited about doing this. When we are finished there we will head the last leg to Yuma. Will have 4 days to travel it. 

Been busy enough at Erics. . Walking a lot. Hanging out with the grandboys. Giving the dogs lots of treats! Eating way too much. Heather is such a good cook. Eric was sent home from work last week d/t a cold/cough and had to be tested for covid. but after 8 days the test came back negative. but he managed to share his cold with me and I in turn shared with tom. Dang. Watched Wade play football one night. unfortunately they lost but wade did well.

We took out the guns into the Mountains and did some target practicing. Tom did well. So did Heather she is a natural

Ok I was very nervous about handling a loaded weapon. did get some good pointers tho from heather

Seriously beautiful landscape around Boulder Mt

tom and I with the "boys" Wade, Dalton and Braden. They are such fun!

Hot game of Giant Jenga. Rachel lost..many times. Braden practiced a lot...while in  college

Wades football game. This NFL is how respecting the flag and national anthem should be done!

OUr camping spot at ERICS. price was very reasonable!

Rachel (bradens girlfriend), braden, wade and eric

sept 28 2020

 Well we are fixed and on the road. Went to Scheiks RV in Newton wi for the fix. slide no longer sags. it was truly rotten. have since seen posts on the RV Bunch that many others have had the same type of leak d/t a design flaw.... hummm. do ya think Keystone will acknowledge that????

.Stayed at Kevins for  6 days and then started the drive to Erics in Montana. relatively uneventful rid7e. Hit wind north of Sheridan Wy and had to pull over early one day but we were able to find a lovely camp ground. Stayed in Deadwood SD for 2 nights,. went into town to gamble a bit. tom won I lost. Got to Erics on sunday the 27th. plan on staying for a week. got a  few maintance projects to complete. stupid camper seems like it is falling apart. constantly finding screws that fall out when we travel. 

anyway, stayed at some nice campgrounds enroute to erics. weather was decent. gas (diesel) was cheap enough. most we paid was $2.42./gal. least was 1.99/gal. but with the wind we got about 9 miles a gallon. ouch!

Payton at her riding lesson

Kendall is a natural with horses

wine tasting in door county

kendall on her new gymnastic mat

yep the slideout floor was rotten!

welcome to welcome campgroung. welcome mn.$20 a night PA

91 degrees in Sturgis sd. $24 a night PA

rush-no-more campground

deadwood  sd homecoming parade

good blood's in deadwood

yep that's snow up in the mountains

pretty drive from Sturgis to Garryowen Mt

that is us wayyy down there

morning from Garryowen MT rv park.$44/night

made it to erics. braden and girlfriend racheal came over for dinner the first night. 

 

Sept 9th 2020

 Well, tomorrow we should have been flying to Brads for a weeks visit. However, we discovered a large bulge under our big slideout and had to cancel our plans for brads and make new plans to get camper fixed. No RV fix it place around Chippewa would even look at it until Dec. AS THIS is their "busy" time. I call bull crap to that! we originally found a place out by erics that's thought they could fix it but they had not done a lot of this type of repair. Eventually, Kevin found a spot near him that could look at it this week. So we packed up at Pine Harbor like we weren't coming back this year and headed to Kevins on Sunday. They looked at the damage and ordered the parts and scheduled a repair for 9/21/20. AS it turned out we could have still gone to brads but I had already cancelled the tickets. We thought we would have had to start the  drive to erics  this past Monday to get there fast and get the repairs done before snow flew. such a hassle to have this occur now. but we are now back at PIne Harbor for nearly 2 weeks. after the repair we will head to erics for a visit then head south. they have already had a boat load of snow in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. makes me a bit nervous to travel south that late in the season. But we need to get the repair done and whatever leak there is sealed. 

Happy 89th birthday to my mom today. She is still doing so well. Uncle Jack lives at the Manor also and helps keep her company. They are still in lockdown d/t  covid but we broke them out of jail recently and had them over for a cookout. joel and karen came also. nice afternoon. 

Other than doing a lot of getting ready to leave for the season in a fast manner we have been laying low. did not want to accidently expose ourselves before going to brads and being around Bode. Will start looking to book another visit there as soon as we can.

camper damage from leak. Insurance wont pay!

Kendalls's 10th birthday. She loves her Horses!

 

August 26 2020

seriously, its the end of august! where has summer gone....Been busy all month getting the annual maintence stuff done. I believe we are DONE!. so all that will be left to do is last minute stuff that cant be done till we go. plan on leaving sept 30th for Erics in MT. for a week before heading south to Yuma Az. Covid 19 is still going on. People are required to wear masks when inside  buildings. it seems to be slowing a bit in spreading but still canceling most events in the area. 

July was busy and HOT! with a lot of humidity. garden did well. lots of beans and potaoes in particular. tomatoes are now ripening and I have canned chili sauce, pizza sauce and salsa. freezer corn is done along with a couple of  qts of refrigerator pickles. just need to do a few more qts of stewed tomatoes and juice and I will be set for the winter. I may not be able to have a garden next year as the campground owner brett may be taking it out and putting in a volley ball court. bummer! we had friends Jo and Dave  visit for a few days in august. fun time. we met them in los fresnos texas our first yr there. High school friends Debbie and Denise also visited this month. great to catch up with them. Our campground friends Mary and Bob whom are no longer in the campground where here last week for a grill out. great to catch up with them also. Done a bit of kayaking with SIL karen and friend pat but not as much as I would have liked. Done lots of bike riding. Toms back has been giving him issues so he has started PT and is improving. thank goodness. we hope to fly to brads on sept 10th using a portion of the vouchers we received last feb in Dallas. So far tho we have not received confirmation of the tickets or another voucher for the remainder of monies left over.  stay tuned for the rest of that story. 

Niece Marisa had a nice wedding party reception. fun afternoon out in july.

meeting of the minds at Pine Harbor campground. Dean, Tom,Dave and George. all world problems solved!

social distancing with mom, uncle Jack, tom and myself

Niece Marisa and Jake had a wedding reception. Payton, Kendall, Aprill, Kevin and Mom. she broke out of "jail" to come to the reception. first time out since covid broke out in march.

mom, me sister cindi and brother joel. arent we gorgeous.

J

joel and karens family along with ours and sister cindi. congrats Marisa and Jake

mom and Kendall

bloody mary sunday with friends jo and dave

for someone who doesnt want a dog they sure like tom,.

touring the area with jo and dave

some of my produce pickings

new haircut

July 1 2020
The year is half over and Covid-19 is still rearing its ugly head in this country. More states are reporting increases as the summer progresses and social distancing/mask wearing is becoming less in the general public. Not good.
We just spent a long weekend at the cabin with Eric ,Heather, Wade, Aprill, Kevin, Payton and Kendall. Fun weekend! Lots fishing done, bean bag played along with a ton of cribbage playing done. Along with eating way too much food. Wade caught the biggest fish. TOM! Fish hook in toms back. So a trip to Spooner ER was needed to remove it. It was good to see everyone . Joel and Karen came up for an afternoon to see everyone. Mom of course couldn't come due to not being able to leave the nursing home without isolating for 2 weeks when she returned.
Garden is doing well. Last night we had red potatoes and peas from the garden for supper. YUM! Green bea ns are just starting to form and we have been eating lettuce and spinach with radishes for 3 weeks. Trying to do a bit more bike riding and I should be able to do it as I have been kicked out of donating plasma for 8 wks because I had two issues of not being able to return my RBCs after separating the plasma out. Oh well. Getting tired of it anyway.

toms been "caught"

no wonder. boat is little for 3 people

garden dinner

payton and wade 

cribbage. eric was the overall champion

hot games of bean bag on the deck. Heather said she wasn't good but she lied. she is!

Made strawberry/rhubarb jam. but it turned out more like a sauce. didn't set well.

brett and bode