Loose ends on Friday!

The royal wedding has captivated all of our TV time today!  And we weren't even planning on watching it.  But Loyce likes all weddings, so naturally we had to watch this one too.  And I think we must have seen the reruns a bunch of times too.

I'm not up on all the who's who of the royal family, so between Loyce and the internet, I finally have figured out who some of the players are.  It really was very interesting and quite the spectacle.  But then if you had that much money to spend on things, perhaps you could put on quite a show too.  And just look at those women and their hats!!!!!  What's up with that?

Anyway I did manage to get outside and mow the all too tall grass with mr john deere.  Our john deere is a yard tractor, and is probably too big for our modest sized yard here in KC, so it doesn't turn tight enough to trim much of the yard.  For that, I have a older lawn boy two cycle walk behind mower.  It has been the subject of quite a bit of repair lately, so it ran nicely.

I have a gas powered string trimmer, that I usually fight to get started, but today I decided to go get a battery operated black and decker 18 volt small trimmer.  After charging the battery for some amount of time, I went out and made quick work of the edge trimming.  I think it will be a keeper, as it came with two batteries, and was on sale over at Lowes.  Buying replacement batteries will be more costly than the entire tool was on sale, so if it lasts for a couple of seasons, I'm good with it.

Also I went over to the insurance company to turn in the estimate on the motorhome.  They couldn't come up with my adjuster, as it turns out that he was on his last day here in Kansas.  And when they did find him, he didn't remember adjusting the motorhome.  Or me, or any details.  The folks at the office couldn't find my file, or even if I had a file.........

But in talking to the technicians down in Red Bay, this morning, they had the new doors all made and installed on the side of the rig.  Also the dome covers over the skylights and fantastic fan had been replaced.  The coach will now be waiting for its turn in the paint shop.  This worries me that the call to come get it will come before my insurance folks can prepare the payment.

The insurance folks wanted to call and negotiate the price that they are willing to pay.  Uh, folks, its a custom built deal, and its not like you are going somewhere else if they don't give you the price break!!

This evening I went out and rode the motorscooter for an hour or so as it was 79 degrees here in windy conditions.  That is the first time in weeks that it has been that warm.  That allowed me to forget the nutty insurance people.

Retired Rod

Home in KC

We are now back in KC, and the trip took the same three and a half hours that it always does.  And there was no GPS needed.  I can't say the car knows the way, since it is a new car that has only made the trip once before, but it does seem so automatic.

We had to be off by 10 in the morning, because this was another in the series of medical days  for me, and I couldn't be late.  They even called to make sure I was back in town.  So we just barely arrived and got our stuff loaded into the house when I had to take off for the doctor's office.

So that was pretty much the end of my day here in KC.  We are all home and buttoned up in the house for the night, and we are forecast to have a really nice day tomorrow, but since we haven't been here for over a week, the lawn is ready to bale.  So there won't be any rest tomorrow, LOL.


Retired Rod

A welcome down day!

We spent a quiet day here at the lake home today.  And that is what we really needed after a week of go go go every day.  As retired folks we are not used to a rigorous schedule, and the last week was just that.

Really, we only traveled about 225 miles on most of the days, but it seems like it took a collective toll on us.  Perhaps it was that we took the more rural route this time to Alabama, and we didn't have planned stops or camping reservations.  

We have been part of a world where everything is structured and planned for all of our lives, and just winging it has never been our strong suit.  So we are learning to have much looser plans, but it still causes some trepidation. 

Of course we did have the constraint that we had to be at the repair facility on Monday morning, and we made that with a day to spare, so perhaps we were all planned out just the same.  But without specific times and locations to make every day it just seems all loosey goosey.

As far as our big travel day yesterday, it was always in the plan to do that if we could get away in a timely fashion.  With our new puppy, Biscuit, we knew it would be much easier if we did not have to stay in a motel.  She sleeps in a crate every night, and has since we brought her home, so confining her in the motel room is not an issue.   But, finding that pet friendly place, late at night becomes the problem.  And then we are back to the bit about planning.  If we hadn't gotten out of Red Bay as early as we did, where would we have ended our day?  And since most of the towns along the Northern Arkansas Southern Missouri route would be lucky to only have one motel, we were back to the pet friendly issue again.

This is what is so great about the RV, you can end up where you end up.  Even if that is in a gas station parking lot for several hours.  Well it all worked out, and we are back in our comfort zone.

Today, we did laundry and watched the dark overcast clouds go over central Missouri.  Our high here was only in the mid 50s as we finally decided to go into Wal Mart for a few hours.  I waited in line for the oil change service in the back of the store, as Loyce shopped for some groceries.  

I continue to go back to the Wal Mart for service on the cars, since I have had such exemplary service in the past!!  LOL.  But truthfully, I have never had a problem with the store here in Osage Beach, and today they even allowed me to leave Biscuit in the car while they worked on it.  We have 1500 miles now, and I like to get the first oil change on a new car at that mileage.  It used to be that any metal particles in a new engine would be caught in the filter by then.  But now, with modern manufacturing techniques, I'm certain that a quick oil change is more of a tradition than a requirement.

Tonight we have sat here and watched the circus on the news channels about Mr Obama's birth certificate.  What a waste of time!  Ooops, I'm not supposed to be voicing opinions on here.

Retired Rod

Whirlwind!

The whirlwind day only begins to describe how today went.  I was awakened at 5:30 by my neighbor banging his locker doors as he was packing up stuff around his coach.  That seemed odd, since most things begin around 7AM.  Also it was raining like cats and dogs.  We subsequently learned that they had an appointment for 6AM at the paint booth in one of the factory buildings.  Also they have a crack in their roof, and the rain was coming in, so they wanted to get under cover fairly quickly as well.

The rain had begun around 1:30, and the downpour seemed torrential.  Water was coming in thru our broken fantastic fan and dripping on the bathroom floor.  Loyce had tossed a towel on the floor to help soak it up.  Stepping on that towel with my bare feet jarred me awake, as it seemed very coooold.

We thought we were packing up to move to the runway and head out of town, so we got busy and had breakfast and began the car pack job by moving the car around near the door, where the neighbor had vacated.   We were about half done, when the mechanic from door 15 came by and wanted us in his bay as soon as we could get there.  What? They didn't tell us that!  He was understanding, and we just threw things together in the car.

Once at the door and into the service bay, I went thru the entire list of stuff again with this technician.  He was very helpful and professional.  I explained that we were leaving the coach since the paint process would take longer than we could stay.  He said he would supervise the storage of the rig on the run way, and he knew that Brad the painter would be taking the rig to bay 20 for his part of the job.  We are in good hands, as these guys really know what they are doing.

Brad the painter is the same fellow that repainted the entire front end of our rig last year.  And he remembered doing it too.

By 9:30 we were on the road headed for our Lake place in central Missouri.  It was 500 miles away according to our GPS, so we needed to keep at it all day.  We stopped three times, twice for fuel and potty breaks, and once at a Pilot/Wendy's for lunch.  It was amazing how awful the pilot folks run a Wendy's franchise.  They take the exact same prepared products as all the other stores receive, and proceeded to completely ruin the food in its preparation.  That was in Arkansas just outside of Memphis.

The rain storm that lasted all night, in Northern Alabama had gone thru Missouri and Arkansas prior to its arrival in Red Bay.  We encountered nasty flooding in Northern Arkansas, and at one place had to drive thru water that was over the road.  Luckily it wasn't fast moving or too deep, or we would have had to turn back.  The water in the ditches and the river was flowing in torrents.

When we stopped for gas at the Missouri border, a fellow patron explained that they had received over 12 inches of rain the previous night, and that all the creeks and streams were out of their banks.  We were lucky to have made it thru.

Tonight after 10 hours on the road, we have arrived here at the lake home, with a car full of wet and dirty clothing, and two tired people.  We have decided to stay here thru tomorrow night before moving on toward KC.

Retired Rod