Monday, April 18, 2011

We got up this morning with a couple of plans in the making.  My first plan was to remember to publish the Journal to the website.  The last couple of weeks I’ve had difficulty remembering to get it done on Monday morning.  Luckily I’ve only got one more week til the summer hiatus.

The day we’ve been waiting for has finally arrived.  We would be going to Joe’s Crab Shack today to have a King Crab Dinner at lunchtime.

We just after noon and stopped at K-Mart to pick up some oil for the motorhome this morning.  I need a quart before we leave and a couple more for backup.

When we got to Branson Landing we found out that the Trolley is no longer running and we’d have to walk to Joe’s.  If we’d know that before we started walking, we could have found a better parking place today.  But I managed to get down there with the visions of Crab dancing in my head.  Apparently inflation is taking over the price of Crab already.  By the time we were done at Joe’s we spent $93 on lunch.  We may not be so excited to eat there again anytime soon.

After lunch we came home for a couple of hours before we head out to the Jim Stafford Theater for his show tonight at 8 PM.  We’ve always wanted to see his show but tonight we couldn’t find anyone in town that we wanted to see more.  As it turned out his show was very good and we were sorry we had put it off for so long.  His comedy was fresh and clean and he also has a couple of very talented kids, Schaeffer and Gigi.  The music was nostalgic and his rendition of “Spiders and Snakes” was accompanied by a background show of dancing snakes and spiders on a blackened stage. It was very entertaining and we both enjoyed the show very much.

By the time we got home it was 10 o’clock and time for bed even though neither of us felt like retiring.  I stayed up watching TV for awhile and Sharon exited to read a book.  After about an hour I was ready to hit the hay also.  It was just after 11:30 by the time I caved.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

We were planning on one last hurrah this morning before we leave for parts north tomorrow.  We had gone for a Buffet Breakfast at a restaurant called Docker’s in the fall when we came through, and enjoyed it very much.  We tried to find it again yesterday when we came home from Joe’s Crab Shack but took a wrong road and missed it.  But we are quite confident that we know exactly where it is, and we’ll be able to find it this morning.

We left this morning about 9:30 with a singular purpose in mind.  To find the restaurant and have Breakfast.  We had no trouble finding it and we had Breakfast.  Our major accomplishment for the day had been completed.  It was very good just like we had remembered it in the fall.

By the time we got home it was already getting hot and muggy outside.  We turned on the air and Sharon left to catch up on the laundry for this week.  We also needed to have the holding tanks dumped and I took care of that, along with adding a quart of oil to the motorhome.  It was nice to be able to retreat to the mice cool motorhome after my two little jobs.  It’s supposed to rain tonight and into tomorrow so I picked up our utility hook-ups and left only the electric cord for tomorrow morning.

Sharon had planned to have Spaghetti and Meatballs for supper tonight.  Just as we sat down to eat we heard a siren go off that usually notifies people of an impending tornado warning.  We didn’t know where the shelter was, so Sharon called the office to find out.  She finally dragged me off to the shelter after I finished my supper.  I can never understand why a shelter is better than staying where you’re at in a tornado.  But I went just to keep the peace, and because she was pacing like a cat on a hot tin roof.

We stayed over at the shelter for about 20 minutes before they notified us that it was all clear.  We came back home and Sharon finished her supper.  We were supposed to have severe thunderstorms tonight but they never really materialized.  We had rain but nothing severe happened.

For the rest of the night we camped out in front of the Telly. The weather wasn’t severe enough to affect the dish so our entertainment for the night was uninterrupted.  It didn’t keep us up past the usual bedtime however.  Hardly anything can do that.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

We pulled out of Branson this morning at 8 AM and headed north.  We hadn’t intended to leave this early but we didn’t have anything except electric to disconnect this morning so nothing was holding us back.  We were on the road and looking for cheap gas as soon as we hit the highway.  We knew that the closer we got to Springfield the cheaper it would be.  But the trick was to find a station before we actually hit the Interstate.  If we didn’t find one before then we’d have to turn around and go back because the farther we got from Springfield the gas was going to go up.

We knew we were going to have to stop before we got to St. Louis in order to fill up again since the gas in Illinois was going to more expensive. It’s no secret that the gas on the rest of the route home is going to get progressively more pricey.  I checked it today and the price at home is $3.93.

We decided that we would try to make it to Wenona, Illinois by the time we stop today to make a short driving day tomorrow.  We’ll have to go about 450 miles today in order to make it.  Sharon drove today for about 3 hours before we got to St. Louis which was a nice break.  I took a little nap while she was driving.

We pulled into our campground which is nothing more than a gas station with about 6 sites, a Burger King and a Subway about 5 o’clock which is just about what time we figured we would get here.

Sharon picked up our supper while she paid for the site.  That was a lot easier than having to cook something.  Besides it was a lot faster also.

During our TV session tonight I decided that I was going to take a nap to recover from the long day of driving.  It didn’t take long for my eyes to slam shut since a couple of our regular shows were repeats tonight.

By the time 10 o’clock rolled around we were both ready for a night’s sleep.  We were going to have another driving day tomorrow but not as long as the day today.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

We were up and ready to go this morning without even trying.  I guess the closer the horse is to home the easier it is to roust her out of her stall in the morning.  Or something like that.  Sharon went inside to Subway and we got a couple of Steak, Egg and Cheese Sandwiches on Flatbread and that was our Breakfast.  I put the slides in and pulled up the jacks and by the time we were done eating we were ready to go.  We pulled up to the gas pumps to top off our tank since the gas was $3.79 here and it didn’t look like we were going to get any relief beyond that today.

It took us exactly 3 hours to arrive in Racine, Wisconsin at my sister’s house.  I expected it was going to take us a little longer, but the short trip was a relief.  We pulled into the driveway and after some short greetings we plugged in for the night.

After talking and catching up on the winter we sat down to a delicious lunch of Stuffed Chicken Breasts, Salad, Baked Potatoes and Pickled Beets.  It was very good and something they had just thrown together.  This was about 2:30 in the afternoon so we figured that was going to be the meal of the day.  Well, not according to their plan.

We took off in the car for the scenic tour around Racine.  We love to go on rides with them cause Wally is a wonderful tour guide and I don’t have to drive.  We drove past Terrytown where Wally and his family owned houses and property out in the hinterlands.  I was there several times when I was just a tyke.  I remember gathering eggs from the chickens but not much else.

Later on about 6:30 we were off to McDonald’s for another meal.  My sister and her husband are in their early 80's but they were not going to miss a meal.  Sharon and I went along basically for moral support.  We each had a double cheeseburger off the dollar menu and she had a Hot Fudge Sundae and I had an apple pie.  That was about all we could hold for the time being.

We came back to the house and settled in for the “fleecing of the relatives” card game.  Actually Sharon and I did quite well tonight and came out a nickel ahead as a team.  I lost, of course, and she pulled my sorry butt out of the hole.  The end of the card game rolled around about 11 and by that time we were ready for bed even if they weren’t.

We retreated to the motorhome parked in the driveway and settled in for the night.  It was nice and warm in there even though there was a nip in the air outside.  There would be no TV tonight since we hadn’t set up the dish, and neither of us was interested anyway.

Friday, April 22, 2011  GOOD FRIDAY

We had been invited over to my Niece’s house this morning for Breakfast before we left, but we wanted to get the motorhome turned around in the driveway and the car rehooked before we went this morning.  We had no problem getting the whole shebang reversed and we were ready to go by 9:30.

We left in their car and we picked up a Kringle, “the world’s best” according to Pat, and when we tasted it it sure ranked up there with the best.

We had a Scrambled Egg and Hash Brown Casserole for Breakfast that was very good along with Bacon, Fruit and Toast.  And of course the Kringle for dessert.

We got back to Marge and Wally’s just before noon, said our good-byes and promptly drove into the soft grass and got stuck.  After trying to get out for just a few minutes, we realized that we were going to need a wrecker to get us out of there.  Try as we might, we only sunk deeper into the soft grass.

I called Sean and Julie wanting to let them know of our dilemma because we were still an hour and a half away from their house.  I told them that we’d be there as soon as we could get ourselves free.  I called our Emergency Road Service and explained the problem to them and about an hour later a wrecker was on the scene.  This would make a wonderful story for the Newsletter if it wasn’t so sad and irritating.  It took him the better part of a half hour to winch us out and get us free.  Seeing the damage we had left huge ruts in Wally’s yard.

We got the car hooked back up and we were on our way again.  This time avoiding the soft yard altogether.  We arrived at Sean and Julie’s about 3:30 and pulled up in the street outside of their house for the night.  We got plugged in and settled and went into the house.

We would be having fish frys for supper tonight from the Long Branch Saloon in Barton.  We ordered them over the phone and Sean and I went and picked them up.  By the time we got back Stephanie, Mark  and the kids had arrived also.  It was now a full house for the night.  The beer started flowing and the party was on.  For everybody except me.  I didn’t feel like drinking tonight so I just had a couple of Diet Cokes for the duration.  It went on almost non-stop til around 1 in the morning.  I think they actually ran out of cold beer and that effectively ended the party.

There was no time for watching TV tonight.  We had just barely enough time to clamber into bed and go to sleep.  It had been quite the night to say the least.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

We got up late this morning and went into Sean’s house for Breakfast.  We had been invited in this morning for Pancakes and Sausage and we really didn’t feel like passing that up.  Besides everybody brags about Sean’s pancakes and we wanted to see if they were really that good.  They were, and it really only set us back about an hour, and the time was well spent eating Breakfast.  Besides we can now drive straight through to Iron Mountain instead of having to stop for Breakfast on the way.

We were on the road right after Breakfast and watching the gas prices as we went.  It didn’t look like anything had changed over the past couple of days so we would stop and gas up in Crivitz which is about 40 miles from home.  That way we’ll have a full tank for the summer before the prices really start to skyrocket.  We could see that we would probably have to pay $3.89 for the gas in Crivitz when we got here.  Another surprise materialized when we arrived.  The gas was $3.93 after we had passed a bunch of stations selling for $3.89.  I wasn’t too upset since we got lucky on the way home and found cheaper gas all along the way when most stations were selling it for higher.  The bad thing was that I got a lousy fill so we didn’t get the amount of gas that we even wanted.

We pulled into the yard about 3 and turned the heat on in the house and then went across the street to Jen and Tom’s to see them and the kids.  Jess had called us and told us their gang were all down napping for awhile.  She was going to call us when they got up so we could go over.

By the time we left Jen’s and got a few things unpacked, we got the call from Jess.  The plan was to stop by KFC and pick up a bucket and head over to eat supper with them.

By the time we finished supper we had gotten all the hugs and kisses and greeting from the Mindoks and the Nettells and we were headed back home to relax for the night.  We were THERE.

THE END

         April 23, 2011