Missouri weekend

We do not see our Missouri kids all that often. We usually manage a weekend with them when we head south in the fall and again when we head back in the Spring. This Fall we decided to drive the car instead of the motorhome to Peculiar for a visit with our Missouri family.

I have taken many pictures and when I get it figured out how to get them on here using my chromebook you will see them or you will have to wait till I get back to my reliable Toshiba and the way I can do it without thinking. I did not bring my camera, thinking the phone camera would be easier. Easier it is but I have discovered two things; I get better pictures with my camera and it is easier to transfer pictures to the chromebook from the camera. Now I need to remember it.

The great grands are always a pleasure and it is so much fun watching their progress as little humans. Little Miss Elise comes up with the darndest things. Such as, she says to her Nana Susan, "I want to live with you because you love me and you will always be kind." Truly this is the kind of stuff this girl comes up with! And little Leo is a wonder too at the things he does at 17 months of age. He was riding a pony for the first time and his mom said," Tell Kelsey thank you." Kelsey was the girl who was walking the pony. Little Leo leaned over, patted the pony and said, "Thank you."

So these are photos out of order...

Sunday Morning Breakfast

This is a waffle with Strawberries Romanoff

(Makes 4 small servings, recipe inspired by Strawberries Romanoff at Le Parisien Restaurant.)
Ingredients:
1 pound fresh strawberries
1/2 cup sour cream (I use light sour cream, but never fat free)
1 T Stevia In the Raw Granulated Sweetener
1 T brown sugar
(You can use all Stevia or all brown sugar, or any combination of sugar/ sweetener that you prefer.)
Instructions:
Be sure to buy the reddest and ripest strawberries you can find for best flavor. Rinse strawberries, then cut big ones into fourths and smaller ones into halves. Put cut strawberries into a medium-sized bowl
In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and sweetener, brown sugar, or a combination of the two. Taste for sweetness to see if you want to add more sweetener. Gently combine sour cream mixture with cut strawberries, divide into four small dishes, and serve.

 Elise and morning cartoons

 Papa Gary with Little Leo

                                               Another vacuum boy!

                                            Nana Susan with Leo

                                             Elise is a rider too

                                          Elise with the queen of the Burnt District Festival in Harrisonville MO

                                            Elise and Leo driving the firetruck. Little Leo took this very seriously never taking his hands off the steering wheel. Should be a good driver except for the no fear factor. They both have that.

                                                These two are buddies.

 

Leo beat Elise to the engine but she gave in gracefully. Always does when it comes to her little brother.            

Elise on the Dragon Wagon all by herself. Fearless.

Elise on the swing all by herself, laughing and giggling the whole time. She thanked the carnival worker when he helped her off the swing and he said, "You are welcome, Princess." She said, "I am a princess." This gave him a chuckle.

There was one ride that Elise did twice with her Nana Susan and that was the Tilt-o-Whirl. She loves carnival rides!!

Mom Amanda getting the kiddoes  ready for the ride to the festival.

Coach Brooker at the football game in Drexel, far right on the sideline. I took this shot just to prove I was there.

I finally figured out the photo problem. 

When making a blog entry, click on the photo entry as usual but then click on 'more' and choose 'from phone'.

Touring Jefferson

1. Belltower- May go up to the top anytime, contact the Chamber office Ph.515-386-2155
2. Courthouse- If you go up in the Belltower first they will give you info about the courthouse or for a guided tour of the courthouse step into the engineers office and someone will assist you. The engineers office is located in the southwest area of the first floor.
3. All Abilities Bikes-As the name implies they have bicycles for anyone regardless of physical conditions.
4. Jefferson Gardens- A tribute to our namesake
5. Sally’s Alley- Sally White from Churdan was a great nature photographer. Some of her pictures grace the boarded up windows of the Lincoln Hotel.
6. RVP 1875-Woodworking done in same way as was done in 1875.  http://rvp1875.com/
7. Angies Tea Garden- A great place to eat and the gentlemen should not be intimidated by the name. The food is done with care and the amounts are hearty enough to fill most men. Excellent! Hours: Tue - Fri 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
8. Greene Bean Coffee House- Well liked stopping place https://foursquare.com/v/greene-bean-coffee/519c1dd4abd8e5210eea3207
9. The Printers Box- located on the south side of the square and a great place to browse for unusual items.
10. Ben Franklin- an old fashioned dime store and a great place to spend some time shopping.
11. John:15 Vineyard- Not a winery but a vineyard and so much more. Like the treehouse and the golf course and the barn-www.john15vineyard.com/  
12. Squirrel Hollow Park- http://www.mycountyparks.com/county/Greene/Park/Squirrel-Hollow-Park.aspx
13. Pleasant Hill Cemetery near Pleasant Hill Church and Squirrel Hollow Park.
14. Spring Lake County Park- http://www.mycountyparks.com/county/Greene/Park/Spring-Lake-Park.aspx
15. A & W root beer stand
16. Dairy Queen
17. The Hill Golf Course-Single annual membership $150
18. 209 Main- Paton Iowa- a great place to eat with a fantastic entrepreneurial story.

Lost

I lost a small coin purse containing a credit card, my drivers license and some cash. I lost it last Saturday somewhere on our biketrail adventure. I am bummed out about it big time. Yes, I will get over it. Yes, I am apprehensive about repercussions, Yes, I cancelled my credit card and duplicated my drivers license. I want to put it behind me and I will in time...I hope.

Recipe Goldmine

What a super duper recipe website. It was mentioned in one of our RV newsletters and I was certainly impressed with their initial offering of recipes. It is a recipe goldmine!

http://www.recipegoldmine.recipes/

Knee Deep

Colleen's computer crash has effected our lives. At least Mickey's, mine and a guy named David. The old computer has now been turned over to David, who may know more than we do,  to see if he can retrieve a very important file that Colleen had 95% percent completed at the time of the crash. In the meantime Colleen and I are working on alternative solutions for the future to insure this does not happen again.
This whole thing is more exciting than a mystery novel, at least to all but Colleen. She hopes she never sees this kind of fun again in this lifetime.
For me it is a challenge to see if I can configure the Chrome operating system to satisfy an editor. I will let you know when and if I am able to so. But I am learning many valuable things along the way.

When faced with a new way of doing things people will take different paths. I am pretty much a rat terrier in that I hate to let it go until I know it is dead or at least a dead end. This morning I decided to sit with this chromebook and not revert to the path I know best to get things done and you can bet I have met with more than a few obstacles. One of which is posting pictures on the blog. My old method on my big old laptop is so easy I could do it in my sleep. And it would be easy to fire it up and go that way. But what fun would that be, I ask? I have discovered about a half dozen ways to accomplish the picture issue of course and you will notice I did get it done but I want the quickest and easiest way. I am close.
I will stick with this until it becomes habit. That is the only way I will know it is securely wrapped with shrink wrap and stored away in a corner of my mind for quick and easy retrieval. So now for a nap...my brain is taxed.

Our Navy "Brats"

Our southern relations have become our northern relations. Granddaughter Ann and her husband Anthony are now a Navy family and live for the time being near Chicago. I snipped from facebook some great shots of their 3 daughters, Nina, Scarlet and Skylar. Skylar recently celebrated her first birthday.

And on Monday we...

Our friends Bill and Bev Gunderson drove from Atlantic Iowa to get caught up with what is happening in our respective lives. We first met Bill and Bev at the golf course in Atlantic and paired up with them many times in tournaments and also in regular everyday play. The first year we met them we invited them to join us for square dance lessons and they agreed. This added another layer to our friendship and made our friendship a year round one. We have enjoyed their friendship for many years and yesterday was no exception.
We toured the town, made an appointment for the belltower and then went to Paton Iowa and the 209 Main restaurant for lunch. One of my lifelong friends, Jean Bartley's (maiden name) daughter waited on us. Jean died very young but many of my childhood memories include Jean so it was a pleasant surprise to see her daughter Penny.
After a very delicious meal we returned to Jefferson and the Belltower.

                                  Bill, Bev, Barb and Butch

And then we got half goofy!

 Views from the tower...Looking northeast

Looking south

And these are a couple of people hanging out in the backroom at 209 Main
in Paton waiting for their big day!

And after lunch and the tower we came back to the "new room" at our house to play Bridge. Oh yes, I forgot to mention we also were in the same Bridge Club for many years. The guys beat us but only slightly. It was a fun day.

Trestle Trail Bridge Ride

Last week Sherri and I planned a High Trestle Bridge Trail ride but the wind held us back so we planned a ride for yesterday and here are my photos. I will post Sherri's contribution when she finds time to send them my way. We started at the Woodward Iowa trailhead and made our way to Slater Iowa and back for a trip of 25.3 miles. It is a gorgeous trip and very popular. The trail was one of the most crowded I have been on. Sherri and I rode single file for most of it. I think a weekday would be a better choice if that is an option for you. 

We met up with the guys in Boone at Jason and Laura's place. They had opted for golf instead of biking and Randy shot a one over par! He was pleased and Butch was impressed! After meeting up with the guys we attended a going-away celebration for Mike Morlan and his girlfriend Mia. Mike is  Laura's son and he is moving to Naples Florida. Mike is an emergency management associate with the city of Naples.

We decided to see if we could talk the guys into going back to the trail for the spectacular night viewing and they agreed! It is about 3/4 of a mile walk from the nearest parking area to the bridge. The nearest parking spot is on the Madrid Iowa side of the trestle bridge on QF lane. It is a dead end lane off of highway 210 and not all that easy to find. There are porta potties and parking. It would be much easier to find if you could do the finding part in daylight and return later for the night time experience.What I did not know is that not all of the bridge is lit! It would be truly spectacular if it was and I would like to see it that way sometime. As it is, a big section of it is not lit and the lighted section was at least another 1/4 to half mile further.

 Night walking in the Iowa countryside is a different experience and a strange one to encounter. Our ancestors would be puzzled that I would say that but how long has it been since you were away from city/town lights and walking through mostly darkness. It feels a bit disorienting at times. In our modern era it may be something many people have never done.

There were also many couples on the bridge. It would be a very romantic thing for a couple to do

It would be a neat experience for a family outing. We did see many families and I am sure it sparks questions from the youngsters. Walking along as a family in the dark has to be a different experience for both parents and children. 

Bridge entrance from the west.

Looking at a bridge on highway 210 from the trestle bridge.

The picture below is not one of mine. It was taken and enhanced by Jolene Dozier Oyer , a classmate of mine. The Jefferson  class of '61 contained a plethora of talented people. This is one of the finest pictures I have ever seen of the High Trestle Bridge.

Piles up

Sometimes stuff just piles up. I think of all these neat things I can share as I go about my day and then it gets all clogged up in my head and it can be hard to sort it all out.
Sunday- Jerilynn and Pete, Jefferson friends stopped by for a visit. They will be wintering in Florida this year and were wanting a small computer to take in their RV. They spotted my chromebook on the table, asked a few questions about it and ordered one. More on this subject later.
Monday- Butch had a pre-op appointment for his colonoscopy (routine as it had been 11 years since he had the last one)
Tuesday-Cleaned up Colleens computer for her and did some organizing while she was gone. So when she returned we needed to go over a few things and show her what I had done so we spent the morning after our walk doing that.
Wednesday- 2 long distance computer "repairs" one from Canada and one from Michigan. Both were easy fixes.
Thursday- Computer class went well and we worked on moving files in Chrome, downloading and moving files. Spoke of the danger of third party downloads and warned against it. Colleen dropped her computer! Butch was busy doing his prep for his scheduled colonoscopy.
Friday-  I messaged Mickey to ask her if she had the knowledge and equipment to retrieve files from an injured computer if it was at all possible. She said "yes" which was music to our, meaning Colleen and I, ears. This is the sort of work Mickey did on her job with the federal government. She is a hardware person whereby I am more of a software person so at times we make a good team.
But I was Butch's driver for his colonoscopy so I could not get involved with the attempt at resuscitation until Butch was back home and sleeping off the remainder of the anesthetic. So here is what greeted me when I went to Mickey's makeshift computer repair shop.

This picture reflects pretty much what Colleen was thinking. She had stumbled into Nerdville and Geek street neither are places she has any liking for.

But in this shot they both are busy looking for solutions and hoping.

Mickey and I consider this kind of thing fun where Colleen says,"I want to go have fun somewhere else, like my backyard pulling weeds."

On Mickey's counter are 5 computers of various kinds, 3 smartphones and an external hard drive. None of the computers are mine. Yes, that is a screwdriver in Mickey's hands. We had tried all of the antibiotics and it was now time for surgery. At this writing it was partially successful. Some files were recovered, unfortunately not the 3 most critical ones. Last I knew it was still an ongoing process. Stay tuned for further developments.

Next entry will be all about Saturday...

New Grocery store

The new Hy Vee grocery store will be up and operational by the time we return next Spring. 2 1/2 blocks from our house! We are excited about this much more than we are excited by the casino!
You can read about the construction process here:
http://greenecountynewsonline.com/2014/09/24/walls-up-on-new-hy-vee/#more-10404

This mornings sunrise

Been stuck on sunrises of late because they have all been so pretty and we have had so much rain this summer that a sunny morning has been somewhat of a rare treat. It may be a bit hard to see but the orange pumpkin is what caught my eye in this shot. The sky, corn and pumpkin combo caught my attention.

Build a crane

This is for all those grandpas out there who are handy. I love this idea and decided to put it out there for those of you who might like to take on this project.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Kid-Crane-Riding-Toy/

Still doing the same stuff

...only different.Colleen took a trip to Minnesota with a friend so I was on my own for awhile. I ride more than walk when alone. This was taken on the bridge last Monday.

Tuesday morning Colleen was back and we were greeted with a beautiful sky- full of pinks and yellows.

And the depot had a backdrop that reminded me of a painting.

The walks have been a little crisper than we like but we have been giving it a go...until this morning when we were rained out. The promise is for great weather ahead so we will be back at it tomorrow.

Butch and I have made tentative plans for the trip south with a stop planned at Canyon Lake TX where our friends Lou and Gary stay. Walnut Canyon RV Park at Canyon Lake. It is a different park than we usually stay in but I am sure it will suit our needs quite well.

Butch's brother Leo had some work done on his rotator cuff Monday so Butch was on nursing duty yesterday. They both seem to be getting along quite well. Butch is looking at that kind of surgery and a carpal tunnel one as well  but the doctors have agreed he should wait till the situations worsen before they proceed. His carpal tunnel has improved a great deal after injections and wearing braces on his wrists at night. It isn't easy getting old but it sure beats the alternative.

I am back at beading but dropped back to doing rings. They can be done in an evening, the variety is infinite and it meets my instant gratification needs. I have a couple made in school colors for Susan and Amanda and we will be heading that way in a week or so for a visit.

My other hobby being computers and Chrome is going strong and I add new people every now and then. So that is fun for me too. It has been a new challenge as the Chrome system and the apps grow regularly.

So this ought to hold you for a bit...

Waiting for warm up.

I fully planned to hop on my bike this morning and get on the trail but being the hothouse flower that I am 44 degrees isn't biking weather. I think it will be more pleasant later in the day. Now we will see if I am more pleasant later in the day.

A reminder to the readers of this blog: Near the bottom of each post is a place to put your email address so you can see the blog entries in your email rather than relying on your memory. It looks like this:

After you put your address in and click on submit, another window will appear and it is confirming that you do want to receive these emails. It is one of those aggravating things where you have to put funny looking letters in the slot. After getting past that it should work. I do not post every day but pretty close.

Received an email from Tom and Wanda Burnell yesterday. We met and worked with Tom and Wanda when we were in Michigan and Thunder Bay Golf and RV Resort in 2010. How do I remember the year you ask? It was the year we bought the house here in Jefferson.
We had a good time with Tom and Wanda visiting sites in the Hillman Michigan area. Toured Mackinac Island with them. Greatly enjoyed their company. That is one of the wonderful parts of full time RVing. We have friends all over the country.
Tom and Wanda are currently in Maine and will soon be heading to Matagorda Texas and around the first of the year they hope to be in the San Antonio area. We hope to connect with them next Spring when we venture north out of the Rio Grande Valley. It was great hearing from them as it spawned a flood of memories about our time in Michigan.

Fall and Spring are antsy pants times when our thoughts turn to being on the move. All of us who travel by RV call it "Hitch Itch" where it is time to attach the vehicle and take off for parts unknown. We are starting to itch.

Day at the Farm

Susan went to the farm with the grands for her birthday. Elise can really get that leg up.

Little Leo is feeding a goat. He looks very capable. Remember this little guy is only 17 months old. It boggles my mind!!

Susan, otherwise known as Nana with Elise and Leo. Happy Birthday Susan!

Sunday Ride

Keri and I bopped down to Cooper on our bikes. Not to bad a trip...8 miles...a little crisp but then we had to return to Jefferson. 15-20 mph winds out of the NNW. No fun at all!!! It makes you feel as though you have not been on a bike in years. That 8 mile return felt like far longer. Very glad to see the depot and home and a cup of hot coffee. We did enjoy our visit when we could find enough lung power and leg power to talk....I think I have made it sound much worse than it actually was but writers can do that!
On Saturday afternoon I did about 3-4 hours of work on the front flower garden. Now Colleen has told me we should leave our gardens alone in the fall because it provides food for the birds throughout a long cold winter but I do remember the work I put in on this garden this Spring after just walking away from it in the fall of 2013. I wanted just a bit of a head start in the Spring of 2015. So the sore muscles from gardening most likely acerbated the pain from the bike ride. Ya, think?? A whole new way of paying it forward.

Elise caught a fish!

Elise caught a fish! Love the sceptical look on her face. Not sure fishing will be a passion.

This could happen at our house

Full-timing and workkamping video

Here is  a video about full-timing and workkamping. It is not in depth but it is a pretty good overview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzAPP5WaN6c

Fine Tuned

My computer skills are getting honed to a razor sharp edge the past couple of days. Norma C. has a new Chromebook and I did what I could to get it ready for her ahead of time so that when she signed on to it things would appear to her like her old computer as much as possible. She was already a Chrome user so that took care of 95% of it. She signed into it this morning and things looked familiar to her and she was tickled pink. So was I! She plans to come to Jefferson in the near future so I can show her some things she may not be aware of and I look forward to that and perhaps lunch at the Teagarden.

Last night was computer lesson night at the library and we had a very productive lesson. That does not always happen.We worked on making groups in our gmail contacts, organizing files and folders in Google Drive, transferring files and folders to Google Drive and other tidbits here and there. They kicked us out past 8:00 and were wishing we were gone already. I told them next time to give us a 5 minute warning and we will be out on time. I did it with a well meant smile.

Colleen left her computer with me for cleanup and maintenance while she was gone for a few days. So yesterday I was immersed in that project. Believe it or not, it is on my list of 'Fun Things To Do'. Many do not believe that, but it is true.

Belltower Picture

From left Jason, Butch, Barb, Laura ad Rich