Only 3 1/2 weeks to go!

Yep, I’m counting them down. Evelyn who is also here even has the days counted now (28). It was a long week and I think they will all be that way now until Christmas. My feet still have not adapted to the punishing hours on the concrete floors. We even went and got new shoes and inserts to see if that would help, I think they may be a little better but they still throb by the time I get home. The first day of a stretch they don’t hurt until late in the shift, the second day they hurt by noon and the third day by the first break it gets bad and by the time we head home all I want to do is get off my feet. Johns are a little better than mine but he feels it too, for him it is more his back. This is just a very physical job and I can honestly say I have never worked this physically hard at any job before. It does make me appreciate all those folks out there that do these jobs full time. That experience alone has made this job worthwhile and catching up financially is the other real positive. 

We have been getting to know a few more of the other work campers here. Dave is a fella we are always talking with at our stand up meetings. He is working but his wife Joann stays back at the rig. They are parked in Independence where we go to do laundry and go out to eat so today we met up with them for dinner at Uncle Jack’s bar and grill (not to be confused with Jack’s bar in Liberty that we have also been to). They have been on the road since 2008 and are from Olathe KS. We discovered that we both have family working for Cerner in Kansas City- small world.

 Our son Gabe and his fiance Melissa have set a date for the wedding, it will be July 28th. We are excited for them. They are keeping it as small as possible with a guest list of only about 100 close friends and immediate family. Melissa found her dress and sent me a photo her trying it on, camera phones are great! Now that we have a date we can better plan our spring. I think we will shoot for being back in Iowa around July 1st so that gives us lots of time to do some exploring. I’ve been daydreaming of all the places I want to go. Two that are on “must dos” this year are the Grand Canyon and Lake Powell, after that maybe Yellowstone and back through the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore but as I learned last year you never really know and being flexible is good. 

Hope you are all enjoying yourself somewhere warm and if you shop at Amazon and it comes from Coffeyville, you never know John or I may have picked and Evelyn and Kevin may have packed it.:)

Happy Trails.............................