Summer 2015

Evie encouraging John to go down the slide

I know I have been terribly absent from the blog but there is something about staying put in one area that really saps my blogging mojo. Enough for the excuses now what have we been up to in the last couple of months.

How do you like my hat?

It's been a summer much like the last with working at the Kernels (A minor league ball) ballpark as ushers, spending time with our granddaughter and enjoying the county parks here around Cedar Rapids. Now to the things that have changed or almost changed. When we first got here we considered staying the winter. I admit to feeling guilty about not being around to help my son Mitch more. We actually started looking for an apartment and such but when it came right down to it, I just couldn't do it. The thought of being here in the winter was just a little depressing and I was afraid if we did, we wouldn't get moving again and our full timer days would be over. I am just not ready for that. So instead we decided to stay a little longer here and wait until October to leave.

Time with my family.  My niece and nephew's kids.
Evie is the lone girl in the crowd.

Another change for us was deciding to keep the rig we have and instead of getting a new one. We determined we would be happy for several years yet if we renovated the inside of our present rig. The upside of this is the cost and staying with a rig that will fit into most parks. The new rig we were looking at was 40 ft. long and would make looking for sites a little more challenging. We still like the state parks and COE parks and they can get get a little tight for bigger rigs. This means I will not get the bigger kitchen I want but I have decided it was overall a better choice. We would like to get 5 more years out of this rig.

So what are we changing? We would like to get rid of all the carpet and go to wood floors. John is inside now working on our main living area which should not be a problem.The challenge is seeing if he can figure out a way to put wood flooring on the slides. the edge where the slide mechanism is  where the challenge lies. Our slides are not flush to the main section and the carpet hides that area. His engineering mind has been hard at work trying to find a solution.  Worst case senario we will put new carpet in the slides. Next change is all the window treatments. I am going to make new simple valences with different fabric and color scheme. I have enjoyed the red, as it reminded me of our sticks and bricks that also had those colors but I am ready for someting new. We also are going to replace the shades with MCD shades. We also plan on reworking the dining area and adding more storage.

Our big splurge in all this are new recliners. For those of you who have met me, you know that I am short, only 5' 1" so I have a difficult time finding chairs that fit. Friends of ours have the Stressless Euro Recliners and they come in sizes. We found a dealer in Iowa City and visited their store to try them out. The small recliner for me is amazing. If I want to sit with my feet on the floor I can and when I lay back the headrest is in the right place. These are very pricy chairs but to have one fit and gets great online reviews for durability it seems worth it. So we bit the bullet and ordered one small and one large. Its good we plan on staying in the area until October as it takes 8 to 10 weeks for them to arrive. I am so excited to have a chair that fits!!!!

Crazy hair at the end of the slide!

Summer is coming to an end and with the decision to stay on the road I have begun to think about our fall and winter plans. I know we will go to Yuma for November and December to join friends Evelyn and Kevin at the Cal-Am resort there. After that is still a little up in the air, but we will probably stay in Arizona for January and February. March will find us traveling toward Louisiana. We have a wedding in April in Destin, Florida we would like to attend and we may take the rig as far as Louisiana and then just take the truck from there to the wedding for a few days. The state parks in the Florida Panhandle are booked solid, though I will be starting to check for cancellations at those as the time goes on. The prices at the private parks in that area are just too high for our liking so they are not an option. So from January on things are pretty fluid if you have any suggestions let me know. I am open to the possibilities.

As the remodel goes on I will post some photos. I can hear John in there as he takes out the existing flooring and gets it ready for the new floor. Hopefully by Saturday we will have a new hickory wood laminate floor.

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer. Happy Trails........................