Sunday, November 25, 2012

We got off to a flying start this morning having gotten everything packed and on the road by 9:30.  At the time we got up it was 17 degrees and not expected to get much warmer through the day.  We breezed through town and all the “time and temp” marquees read 23 degrees.

Our first stop was to Wal-Mart to pick up enough gas to get us to Oak Creek, Wisconsin where it was going to be about 30 cents a gallon cheaper.  We put in about 35 gallons and with our “15 cent a gallon” discount Discover Card we got it for $3.44 a gallon.

We headed south through the 2 or so inches of snow we got last night.  At this point we don’t expect to drive out of the snow until after Green Bay.

Our next stop came at Lambeau Field in Green Bay where we usually stop for lunch on our way south.  It was a disappointment this year as they had changed the menu since last year and the mini corn dogs weren’t available anymore.  So it turned out to be a long walk in the cold for naught.  The Patty Melt I substituted turned out to be delicious however.

We were back on the road and headed to West Bend where we’ll spend the night on the street in front of my son Sean’s house.  We got held up at Lake Buttes de Morts for a traffic accident for about 40 minutes on the way.  Apparently somebody decided to do something stupid and somebody else ran into them causing the tie-up.

We arrived about 3 and got set up for the night and were informed that we’d be spending the evening at my daughter Stephanie’s tonight.  So we went right over and had a wonderful time spending our “Christmas” together.  We had Chicken Wings and Pizza for supper tonight that was quite good indeed.

We came “home” late tonight after saying all our good-byes to everyone, and head right for bed when we got here.  It had been a long first day on the road.

Monday, November 26, 2012

We were up and rolling earlier than usual today since we had some extra-curricular things we had to do today when we got to Racine.  We were on our way about 8:30 and realized almost immediately that we didn’t have enough gas to make it to our regular station in Oak Creek.  We found a station along the way and put in about 15 gallons, enough to get us there.  After two stops for gas we finally made it to McDonalds for Breakfast.  It was just our luck that they changed the parking lot at McD’s and we found ourselves going in the wrong way.  It was not much of a problem since we were in the back of the lot anyway.  We disconnected the car and headed for the hospital to see my Brother-in-law Wally.

We stayed at the hospital for about a half hour or so before we left and headed back to the motorhome.  We were hooked up and on our way in about a half hour.  We k new we’d never make it to Litchfield, IL tonight so we decided to stop at Wenona, IL at a Shell station that has hook-ups for about 5 vehicles.  We were the first ones in, but it was only about 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

We parked and got settled, including the dish for TV, and we were set for the night.

It hadn’t warmed up much for the day and was still in the teens for a temperature.  It’s not usually this cold as we leave home, but a cold snap for the last couple of days is just hanging in there this year.

We mostly just sat around and watched TV tonight.  I was still being bothered by an aching pain in my back and Sharon decided to go to bed early.  I nursed the pain in my back with a Hot water bottle all night.

By 10 I was even ready for the rack.  Me and the hot water bottle.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

The weather is remaining cold for the most part and the temperatures are in the high teens.  It’s easy to tell how cold it is by the number of times the furnace kicks in during the night.

We were on the road by 8:30 this morning and I was still being bothered by a nagging backache that I’ve had for the past month.  Even after 4 visits to the chiropractor I’m still in pain, and now a hot water bottle has become my constant companion.

Our only stop today was for gas just before we entered Missouri.  Of course right after we stopped, we found it for much cheaper.  Go figure.

We stopped early again today in Cuba, MO.  The car and motorhome are a mess so we’ll stop and get them washed tomorrow morning, on our way out of here.

We settled into our campground about 3 o’clock this afternoon.  We finally got some water onboard which gives us some normalcy for a change.  It was much too iffy to put water in before today.  Frozen pipes are something I don’t want to have to deal with again.

We basically watched TV for most of the night and Sharon took out her new Nook and was getting familiar with it.  The kids bought it for “us” errantly thinking that I monopolize the computer.  It’s actually the other way around.  She is actually on the computer much longer than I am, and my stuff is usually done long before she ever gets out of bed.

We headed for the padded room about 10 right after Vegas was over.  Me and my “best friend”, the hot water bottle were tucked comfortably in the sack.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

We got off to a leisurely start this morning since we weren’t going a long ways anyway.  It was only going to be an hundred and some odd miles to get to Branson and we needed to make a stop at Strafford at the Camping World.  That stop turned out to be the worst stop we ever made anywhere.  We had a couple of things to pick up and we thought we’d fill up with LP Gas at the same time.  While Sharon went in and did the shopping I tried to position myself for the LP Gas.  The LP was located in an area that was impossible to get to.  I managed to get myself stuck at the end of a dead-end driveway, and had to disconnect the car to get back out.  That was much easier said than done.  The towbar was angled just enough to have it locked in place.  After about a half hour nightmare we got it undone, re-positioned, and rehooked up again.  I’ll never stop at this Camping World again.

We were back on our way again in about an hour headed toward Lambert’s Café in Ozark, MO.  It’s the “Home of the Throwed Rolls” and a favorite stop of ours for many years.  Surprisingly it was about 2 PM but it was quite busy.  We ordered our usual Chicken Wings which we took home, and filled up on the pass-arounds.

After Lambert’s we were back on the road again headed toward Branson and arrived about a half hour later.  We quickly settled into our site and sat back and relaxed.

Neither of us was hungry for supper so we just sat around and watched TV.  The weather here is much nicer than we’ve had for the last couple of days.  It’s expected to get to the 70's on the weekend. 

We both felt like heading for the bed at 10 tonight.  I took my friend, the hot water bottle with me.  He was quite warm and soothing.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

We both had a pretty good night last night sleeping relatively late this morning for a change.  This would be our first full day here at Treasure Lake Resort.  We didn’t feel too anxious to get busy so we sat around for most of the day just relaxing.

The weather has warmed up considerably from what we were in over the past 4 days.  It looks like it will warm up to the high 60's by the end of the weekend.  That won’t be hard to take.

We ate our leftover Chicken and stuff, from Lambert’s, for a mid-afternoon meal today since that was when we got hungry.

Sharon worked on the Nook today and was familiarizing herself with it.  I really have no interest in it.  Besides my fat fingers have a hard time typing on it.  Earlier today I couldn’t even get it turned on.  I guess that wasn’t my fault however.

I was just content to use my new laptop and be happy with the old TV.  Sharon got us tickets to see Roy Clark tomorrow afternoon and we were both surprised to get my ticket, as a military veteran, for free.

We were both good until about 10:30 tonight before we finally decided to call it a day.

Friday, November 30, 2012

I was still being nagged by a sore back this morning.  I really don’t have time to find a chiropractor today, and we’re leaving on Sunday, so I may have this miserable pain well into next week.

We didn’t have anything planned for today but Sharon took off for Wal-Mart early to pick up some pain killers, and a couple of other items.

By the afternoon I was hurting enough to find a bone cracker in the yellow pages.  I managed to find one that was close to us and not far from the theater where we would see Roy Clark this afternoon. I got an appointment at 5:10 so we’ll go to the show first and then hit the chiropractor.

By 2 PM we were ready to go so we took off for the show which started at 3.  We had a pleasant surprise when Sharon was buying the tickets.  My ticket was free because I was a military veteran.  We were pretty much the only ones in the theater when we got there.  The show was absolutely fabulous.  It was Roy Clark with a 6 piece back-up band that pretty much played a stage full of instruments.  We thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

The next stop was the chiropractor and it was the weirdest experience yet.  His treatment rooms were separated from the reception area by a half-wall and he was getting adjusted when we walked in.  All conversations, of course, could be heard throughout the reception area.  While I didn’t particularly mind, it was just a little weird.

We drove past the Christmas “drive through display” on the way home.  We had gone through a couple of years ago and it was just beautiful.

We came back home and settled in for the night.  My back was feeling quite good but I’ve had that situation before and it reverts right back after a day.  I did pick up some muscle relaxers at the Doctor’s, so with any luck they will work for me.  I’ll know by tomorrow morning if there’s any change. 

We caved early tonight at around 10.  There’s just nothing to hold our interest past that time.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

We got up this morning with one thing on our agenda.  This afternoon we would be heading out to Joe’s Crab Shack for our “annual” King Crab Dinner.  It has now become almost a ritual.

Since we are leaving here tomorrow, Sharon got the laundry together and headed out to the Laundromat in the park.  While she was gone, I went out and dumped our holding tanks and filled us up with water.  It was so nice out I did it in shirt sleeves.

When she got back we took the toilet apart to try to find a stubborn leak that we haven’t been able to locate.  It’s a “clean water” leak so the few places that are charged with water should be obvious to find.  We’ve had it apart just recently to change a syphon valve in the back of the stool, and now this problem has arisen.  We got it apart and back together again in about 30 minutes and still had no clue where the water was coming from.

By 2 o’clock we were leaving our troubles behind as we headed out for Branson Landing to Joe’s.  Joe’s always has new things on the menu but we both opted for the King Crab.  There was a Lobster Pot Pie that had tempted me, but I held fast and true.  We actually ordered the Lobster Pot Pie to go, and we’ll eat it tomorrow sometime, either for lunch or Dinner.  It sounded way to good to pass up completely. Unfortunately on the way back home we forgot to take it with us on the way out.  We got halfway home before we realized it, and had to turn around and drive the 2 miles back to pick it up.

We settled in front of the TV for the rest of the day since we got home too late for Sharon to go to church today.  There was really nothing on, which is typical for a Saturday night.  We could have watched a movie but decided to surf our way through the night instead.  We managed to find Lockup-Raw and stayed on that for a couple of hours.  We actually hung in there until about 11 tonight which is unusual for having nothing to watch.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

We were up and rolling at a leisurely pace this morning leaving Branson at about 9:30.  We didn’t have any planned stops today except for gas somewhere on the MO/AR Border.  The station that we stopped at was 2 cents a gallon more than it was advertised on the net.  I like the fact that we can check the gas prices on the internet but they’re not always correct by the time you get there a couple of hours later.

Our second stop today was at a Subway in Springdale, AR for lunch.  Subway had advertised $2 subs and they were good for their price today.

We made it as far as just south of Checotah, Oklahoma before we pulled over and into our campground for the night.  We figured it would be a two day trip to San Antonio and we completed the first leg today.  We’ll be back on the road tomorrow for the second stint.

We got good news today as the Packers beat the Vikings and moved back into first place when the Bears lost.  We didn’t get the game on TV so we had to wait for the update report from one of the other games.

On the road today we had the air conditioning running in the motorhome.  I think that’s the first time that’s ever happened to us in November.  The temperature rose into the 70's today and it was even warmer in the coach.  The weather seems to be getting unusually warm over this period which is saving us LP Gas for a change.

We had our Lobster Pot Pie from Joe’s Crab Shack for Supper tonight and I wasn’t that impressed.  The mixture was excellent but the puff pastry crust on the top was tough even though it was good.  Apparently it needs to be eaten fresh in order to get the most out of it.

We settled in for TV for the rest of the night even though there was little to watch. choice.  We immediately went to bed after it was over though. We stayed up late only because we had no choice.