Flamingo on a Stick

I t has been raining in Iowa for over two weeks. It is not just little rain showers either,its one severe thunderstorm after another. The last two weeks a front has been sitting over our state with what the weather people here call training thunderstorms. I’m not sure what the science of it is but I can tell you it means it is raining cats and dogs as the old saying goes. Yesterday again we awoke to storms and it was getting a little old. I had to work all day in Iowa City and drove in good rainstorm to get there. When I came out from work the southern sky was black and you could see the clouds rolling in.  I was thinking it was going to be another interesting drive but as I headed north to Cedar Rapids there was sun shine ahead. :) I could see the dark sky behind me but it never made it’s way to CR, by early evening the wind came up a little and blew the clouds out, the humidity went down and it was an absolutely evening. I woke up this morning to blue skies and it made my day. I...

The DW said I was slack’n, and of course she’s right. So I’m back on topic. Sort of. Lots of stuff to tell you, some of which might even be interesting. Or not. First cool thing is: we have a new Mac, as in an Apple MacBook Pro laptop, that I get to type this on. I’m a long time Windows user, so a Mac is new to me but it wasn’t really a hard decision. My last computer purchase came with Windows Vista installed on it. A year later, Windows 7 was introduced as the next new thing, but by then I knew I would never own another Microsoft product. Even if they offered me a free upgrade. Which, of course, they didn’t because Microsoft has no conscience. Or they never would have released Vista. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then you’re probably already a Mac user, so good for you. Anyway, I love this thing. I wasn’t even tempted to get an IPad. I wanted a real keyboard to type on, and this was a great looking package. It has the cutest power connector with a magnet on the end that...

I t has been just over a year since we sold our home and set ourselves solidly on the course to full time RVing. I was reflecting on what we have learned in that year so I thought I’d share a few of these things. First we learned that our lives were really full of stuff that we really didn’t need. When we moved out of the house, a 2400sq. ft home and 3 stall garage, we purged, sold, donated and gave our kids an incredible amount of “stuff” and were able to fit into a 900 square ft. apartment with a one stall garage. Then the spring came and the reality of now downsizing enough to fit into 300 square ft (or less) and no garage. The last of the furniture went, we digitized all our photos and movies of the kids, gave away and donated more stuff. We started moving things to the RV in April and finished the whole move in May. Man did we have a lot of stuff. Now everything we own is either in the trailer or the truck. Whew!!! It was an amazing amount of work and at times it was hard to sa...

Well, it is a day with some downtime. Just sitting here outside under the awning on a beautiful day in Decorah. We really do love this campground and this town. Walked downtown to T-Bocks for breakfast, they have the best pancakes we've come across. Walked home the long way to check out where the laundromat was since that is a task we need to take care of today. But I digress, so back to the main discussion. Austin is my youngest brother's youngest son (of 3-Aaron and Alex are older). He still has one more HS graduation to go with his daughter Audra who is only 8 right now. I love visiting with this group and we have such fun together. Friday and Saturday we helped get ready for the party and took turns going to Audra's softball games - she had 3 on Saturday. If you havent been to a little girls softball game you should check it out when they are not out on the field they are doubling as cheerleaders, chanting cheers from the bench. It is truly a delight. Now my nephews en...

We are out on our first real trip with the 5th Wheel. We started last Friday, heading to Grand Island NE for my nephews graduation. It was about 350 miles of driving - not the way we like to travel but the weather held us back a day and we had commitments so off on the long drive. We had reservations at Mormon Island State Recreation Area just off I80 at the exit for GI. We tent camped here and that area is great except for the noise however the RV area is another story. The sites are really packed in. The pull throughs are like pull overs that make the road so tight they give you orage cones to put at the back of your rig so it won't get hit. It took us forever to get backed in to our site. It was long enough for the 5th wheel but we had to park the truck elsewhere. The only sites that would be ok are the ones along the lake, they are still small but manoeuvring is easier and the parking lot for the truck would be right in front of it. I don't think we will ever stay here agai...

Tourists vs Travlers A lot has been going on and I had planned on blogging about our trip so far but there are photos I want to put with it and I can’t get the computer to read the card from the card reader or directly from the camera. I can see them from the cameras viewer but nothing I’ve tried will read and send them to the computer. I just get a “no valid files found” message. Not sure if it is a computer or card issue – man I hate to loose photos. So instead, you get to read about a quote I found on a fellow blogger’s site (Bayfield Bunch – though he doesn’t know its origin either because I wanted to make sure and give him credit). The quote is. “Tourists see the world, travelers experience the world.” I really like that because I think it explains why we have chosen this vagabond retirement plan. When time is short it feels as if all we do is run around trying to see as much as we can before we leave. This lifestyle will allow us to stay until we have explored and experienced as...

This last week had been an incredible amount of work. Moving furniture to Gabe's(our oldest son) house. Cleaning everything in the apartment and finding places for all the things that need to go into the trailer, and making multiple trips to Good Will with all the things we don't know what to do with. Gabe has been great and he and his new roommate Frankie have taken in most of the furniture, they have a great looking house for two young guys. Our other son has been studying in Norway this semester and will return in just another week. I am really ready to have him back and spend some time with him before we take off this fall. We talked with him on Skype yesterday - what a great invention!! He just came back from a fishing trip to Northern Norway and caught a cod that was about 2.5 feet long. So Kevin, if your reading this Mitch has found a new fishing spot for you. He said he has photos so maybe once he is back he will let me share that with everyone. Yesterday was a moving...