The Journal of 2010-11

By Bill Rocheleau

Sunday, November 28, 2010

We hit the road this morning at 9:30 headed toward Green Bay and Lambeau Field for lunch.  It's always a discussion, on the way, where we'll stop and eat.  Today Curly's Pub, at Lambeau, won the day.  We've been there before and I'm sure we'll be back again in the future.

After lunch we headed for West Bend, Wisconsin to my son Sean's house for the night.  We park in the street and plug into his house so we'll have electricity for the night.

We treated all three families to KFC for supper tonight.  It works out very well and the kids just love KFC.

We have a new development this year for Sharon.  She's decided that she wants to be on Facebook and try it out for a while

The "party" broke up about 9:30 and we headed out to the rolling hacienda parked outside.  It wasn't long before we realized the furnace wasn't working properly.  I'm guessing the LP was frozen in the lines and not feeding the furnace.  It was blowing cold air.  We plugged in our space heaters and used heavier cords.  That would work for awhile.

Monday, November 29, 2010

At three in the morning I woke up and the space heaters weren't blowing at all.  I guessed that we had tripped a breaker in the house, and weren't getting any electricity.  I fired up the generator to run the heaters.  The generator was making a little noise so at 3:30 we though it best to just get back on the road again.

We left and it shook up the rest of our schedule.  We were supposed to meet my sister Marge an hour and a half up the road for Breakfast so we needed to call her at ten to five.  They still agreed to meet us and we met them at 5:30 at McDonald's.  We sat and talked for 90 minutes which was a long visit compared to what we usually do.  But today we had plenty of time due to the early meeting.

We were back on the road again at 7:30 headed toward Moscow, Iowa to get our jacks on the motorhome fixed.  The jack I had fixed at home quit working as we got to the factory.  So they replaced our front left and right rear ones.  It cost us $525 which I thought was a real bargain.

It started raining before we got the motorhome back so we decided to stay in the HWH parking lot for the night and plug into 30 amp power.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

We had over 450 miles to go to Branson when we left the parking lot this morning, so we knew we would be spending another night in a private campground tonight.

Our only stop today was at a Flying J in     for gas and then we decided to eat lunch at the same time.  Sharon heated up some leftover Turkey and Gravy and we had open faced sandwiches.  Mmmmm very good.  We still had some Cranberry salad and we also had that for lunch.  It was a quick stop mainly because of the wind howling outside.

We were back on the road and didn't stop until Columbia, Missouri at our campground for the night.  We found Cottonwoods RV right along the highway and pulled right into a pull through site.  We were settled and watching TV in about 15 minutes since we weren't using the other hook-ups anyway.  Although we did notice that the faucets were heated here, so when the wind died down, I went out and hooked up the water to fill our tank.  At least we'll be able to take showers at home now.

I was napping while we were watching TV tonight.  I guess I was still recovering from the early morning rousting from Sean's on Monday.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

We left our campground this morning without too much of a hassle and got on the road headed toward Branson.  Our only stop on the way was in Ozark, MO to eat our lunch at Lambert's Café.  It has become a tradition for us now to stop at "the only home of the throwed rolls."  We ordered Chicken Wings which we knew we'd be taking home, while we ate and filled up on the pass-arounds.  Lambert's Café is a good stop no matter when you make it.

We ambled out of the restaurant and stopped for gas at the station across the street.  It's usually a very good price there, but today, not so much.  We paid $2.69 a gallon which is still cheaper than at home.($2.97)

We made it to Treasure Lake RV Resort, in Branson, about 2 o'clock and quickly got set up so we could relax and settle our lunch.  We had some trouble with the satellite today but fixed it by rebooting the receiver.  It's nice to be working with the DVR again.

We stayed up til our usual bewitching hour and then headed for the feathers.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

We got up this morning with only one thing in mind.  We needed to find someplace different to have our buffet Breakfast.  We haven't had much luck over the past couple of years finding a good place.  We'll try a new place called Dockers this morning.  It's a little off the beaten path but it's only $4.49

The Breakfast was very good except for the price of coffee.  By the time we were done we paid $14.50 for the whole shebang.  We might have to drink water next time.

After Breakfast we headed out to the Jubilee Grocery Store.  We needed to pick up a few things including stuff for Sharon to make Turkey Pot Pie for supper tonight.  We also stopped by Wal-Mart to see if they had any wool yarn.  Sharon has been making "caps for the military" for the past month or so.  She just sent 14 of them.  She had no luck with the wool yarn, however, so I guess she'll just have to keep looking.

After getting back home we both settled in for a nap while watching TV for the afternoon.  I think both of us are still catching up on last Sunday night even though it's been a few days now.

We had the Turkey Pot Pie for supper tonight and Sharon also made a Cranberry Sauce out of fresh cranberries.  She didn't add enough sugar though and it puckered us right up.  I actually felt the nails on my toes curling.

We settled in for TV for the rest of the night until it was time to go and get some serious sleep.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Our plan for the day today was to go to Joe's Crab Shack for lunch.  We went down to Branson Landing just before noon and it looked like it was going to be a very nice day.  The sun was shining and except for a slight breeze it was indeed a very pleasant day.  We took the trolley down to Joe's and they managed to find us a table in the front of the restaurant.

We wanted the King Crab Pot but the waiter talked us into the Dungeonness instead.  We found it to be just as good as the King but more difficult to get out of the shell.  They did bring a pot with the wrong seasoning for Sharon so they replaced it with another pot.  So0 we actually got a really good deal.........3 pots for the price of 2.

After lunch we headed over to K-Mart to pick up some cold medicine for the both of us.  Sharon ad a cold a couple of weeks ago that she gave to me, and now I'm returning the favor.

We came home and rested our lunch for a while and then Sharon took off with the laundry.  I decided to dump our holding tanks and refill our water while she was gone.  By the time she got back, just before Jeopardy, we were all set to take off again tomorrow.

We had tickets to see Mel and Pam Tillis tonight at the Tri-Lakes Event Center.  The Center is actually the old Mel Tillis theater that he sold 8 years ago. He now returns sporadically for shows during the year.  The show was very good featuring only Mel and Pam, with their support musicians.  The show was 3 hours long which surprised us.

After the show we drove through the festival of lights which was being held on the route we needed to take to get back home.

We managed to get back home and in the "house" by 11 and shortly afterward we both were sawing logs and having pleasant dreams.  Although the last week on the road has been quite expensive for us to say the least.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

We were off this morning without too much hassle.  We were expecting windy conditions today on the road, but the wind must have been at our backs, cause we didn't notice it all day.  Our only stop today, except for gas, was for lunch at McDonald's and to change drivers

We stopped for the night, around 3 o'clock, at Rockwell RV Park just west of Oklahoma City.  We opted for another campground instead of a Wal-Mart cause the temperature outside tonight was not going to be that warm.  We may be just too old to rely on our batteries to last the whole night.  And you can't run the Generator while you're sleeping.

We had leftover Turkey Pot Pie and the Cranberry Sauce for supper tonight.  Sharon had added a bunch of sugar to the Cranberry Sauce and it was very nice along with the Turkey.

We settled in to watch TV tonight and had a couple of shows taped that we didn't see last night because we were at the theater with Mel and Pam. We didn't make it much past 10 however before we turned out the lights and closed up shop.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

We were up and on the road this morning by about 9:30.  We were in no hurry this morning as we only had 253 miles to Amarillo and our next stop-off.  We decided to stop in Yukon, OK (Home of Garth Brooks) at the McDonald's for their Big Breakfast.

After Breakfast we got back on the road and our next stop was at the Flying J in Amarillo for fuel and LP Gas.  We needed both for the next leg of our trip.

We didn't know exactly where our campground was, but we had a general idea, and we actually drove right to it.  We found out about this place through Corky and Deb Zimmermann friends from back home.  The rates here are quite attractive.  3 days for the price of two, and the daily rate is $20 with "free" Wi-Fi.  We'll stay at least two days and maybe three.  Anything to save a buck.

In regard to saving a buck, we had our "doggie bag" Chicken Wings from Lambert's Café tonight for supper.  We also had the Cranberry sauce with the added sugar again tonight.  It was much better this time.

After dishes we settled in for the telly tonight.  Sunday is typically a rotten night for TV, but with the DVR we can manage very nicely finding something entertaining to watch.  We only had to watch until 10 anyway.  There ain't anybody in this shack that can stay up past 10.