Thursday, April 10

We finally all settled down for the night after the company left Wednesday night.  Dixie spent some time making up beds upstairs, and when I went to bed, I found out she had put an electric "warmer" on my bed.  I didn't know that, but the bed was warm and I could feel electric cords under me that I hadn't felt before.  Dixie stopped in the bedroom door and asked me if I was warm, then told me what she had added to my bed.

I had made a new cake recipe during the day, but the frosting was labor intensive so I didn't have it ready when we had all the company.  Dixie tried it out before she went to bed, but I moved it off the table before I went to bed so Lucille wouldn't see it in the middle of the night and decide she needed to try it (that glass cake cover is really heavy).  When I came down this morning, it was back in the middle of the table.  When she got up, either during the night or very early this morning, she decided she needed to try it and had moved the whole cake plate back to the table -- and that thing was heavy.  And the cake wasn't even that great!

Thursday.  We had another electric problem this morning (probably from early morning excursion with the cake).  Anyhow, the kitchen light wouldn't come on.  So Joe is back on the ladder, fixing things again.  Don't know what the problem was but he bypassed the chain and got light back in the kitchen.

Lucille got 5 more birthday cards in the mail today.  She will continue to look at them every day as more come in.  It gives her great pleasure to hear who they are from and to look at the pretty pictures on the cards.

I told Dixie I was handing Lucille back over to her and I was no longer in charge.  I must have felt some relief from her arrival because I slept until almost 10:00 this morning, something I never do.  

Today's next big event was a trip to town to get Lucille's nails done.  First, Joe was going to take her.  Then Jim decided to ride along.  In the discussion of the color of nail polish, Dixie decided she better go to. None of these things just "happen," it takes a great deal of discussion.  So I finally got some peace and quiet -- I stayed home by myself.

But they all noisly returned, and Dixie made her meatloaf for dinner.  Rachelle and the kids stopped by and brought chicken pot pie and carrot cake muffins for tomorrow.  After they left, we played a couple games of 5-handed euchre.  Lucille can see these new cards well enough to play.  She didn't win but she certainly enjoyed playing.

It got up in the high 70s here today, but it was very windy.  I checked the weather back home and it was 96.  We are supposed to have a few more warm days here before the next cold spell.

Dixie just found out it was "siblings day" today, so she posed with her brother for a picture to memorialize the day.  Fred didn't show up today so he missed out.

Wednesday, April 9

Wednesday.  Dixie is coming today, so we have to get the house ready (which I thought was above and beyond!).  Lucille laid in bed until 10:00 and still complained of her back, but I told her that sometimes lying in bed for that many hours can also make you have a backache.  I fixed breakfast and then gave her a bath.  Meanwhile, I gave Joe his assignments -- picking up a bag of potatoes on his morning soda run, taking out the trash (his mother thought he should have taken that out about 10:00 last night), and vacuuming.  But he ran into Fred at the gas station/soda shop, and Fred followed him out, so that delayed Joe getting started on his chores.  He did get the trash taken out and burned. 

Strange as it is, I really like the smell of that trash pit burning.  One of our favorite family stories was about Eric's first trip here (Cody was 1).  He was sent to burn the trash with only one match.  He never felt so much pressure in his life as he did when he knew he had to get that fire started with that one and only match.  We have laughed about the story many times over the years.

 I made hair appointments for us for this weekend -- we have Joe's reunion on Friday, and then we are all going to the Alumni on Saturday, so Lucille and I are going to the beauty shop, and Dixie too if she so chooses.

There is a card shower for Lucille's 98th birthday next Wednesday, and cards are beginning to trickle in.  Today she received 6 in the mail.  Even though they have to be read to her, she really enjoys looking at the cards and hearing who they are from.

Apparently we have already been here too long.  Fred just told us a bird had built a nest on the ladder on the back of our motorhome.        


Dixie and Jim arrived about 6:00 p.m., with 34 whitecastle hamburgers from Terre Haute.  And we ate everyone of them (there were 7 of us, Fred left but came back out).  Rachelle stopped by with the kids, then Tommy and his family showed up.  We hadn't gotten to see them yet so we had a good visit.  Trent and William immediately went outside with Clayton to run around the house, so we didn't get pictures of them.  Mallory donated her purple bow to Grandma, so I tried to get that in the picture.We had a housefull (14 I think), but this big, old house handles crowds pretty well.      

Tuesday, April 8

Tuesday.  Woke up to SUNSHINE this morning.  Yeah.  But it was another chilly night under the sheets. And the sunshine didn't last very long.  It peeped through off and on throughout the day, but the clouds mostly took over, and I think we had a few sprinkles.  Lucille is still complaining about her back, but the pain has apparently moved a little lower.  She spent most of the day in bed on the heating pad until mid-afternoon, then she decided maybe someone would stop by, so she got up, dressed and made ready for company. No one showed up, but we did take her to town for Bobe's pizza, and Joe took a scenic drive through the country on the way home.  That really wound her up, and she talked non-stop for the duration, telling him who used to live there, where he should turn, to watch out for that ditch or turn, etc.  Meanwhile, his cousin Mike called (he had called twice earlier and had to hang up to answer another call), so Joe had Mike in one ear and Lucille in the other.  He was about nuts by the time he got us home.

The big news of the week is that someone has bought the Essex plant just behind Lucille's property.  An India-based plastic recycling plant is apparently going to open it back up.  Lucille hopes it doesn't stink, and that the trucks don't go by her house.  The picture below is taken from her carport -- there's just a field between her property and the old Essex building.  I actually worked there as a secretary the year before Joe and I got married.

Sue Oexmann stopped in Bobe's to pick up dinner so we got to chat with her for a few minutes.  Lucille was afraid someone might see her out, and wonder why she had skipped church on Sunday.  I think she had a guilty conscience.

While we were gone, Jaclyn and Adalyn did stop by, with a package of cookies.  We were sorry to have missed them. I have brand new color crayons just waiting for Adalyn so I hope she comes back within the next few days.  Lucille did try the cookies before she went to bed and apparently they won her approval because she went back for more.

The trees are starting to bud, and some flowers are poking through the ground.  But more exciting, the lilac bush by the carport is budding, and I should be here this year to see it bloom!!!  Now I just have to hope no strong winds come by and blow off all the pretty blooms.

Monday, April 7

Monday.  Lucille still has the back pain.  After breakfast Lucille decided to go back to bed, so we fixed her up with the heating pad again. That seemed to give her some relief, and she spent most of the day in bed until she heard company talking.  Our friend, Barbara Seitzinger Holscher came out for a visit, which is always a pleasure.  After supper, Rachelle stopped by with Clayton and Mallory.  But Lucille was ready to go to bed when it was time.

This weather is really crummy.  It was cold, windy and rainy all day.  Joe made his daily trip to town for his diet soda and tenderloin -- he seems to think he needs to test all the tenderloins in town to find the best one.  I have a correction to the last post -- I guess it was Adam that recommended the Marathon Station.  Now Rachelle says the Snowda is the best so I think that is next on his agenda.

Rachelle is now a Pampered Chef sales rep, in addition to her job at school and running the two kids to baseball practice, dance and tumbling, etc.  She dropped off a catalog for us to drool over.

We tried to watch the NASCAR race but the TV reception here is so poor that we saw little of it.  Joe stayed up to watch the NCAA championship game, but I went on to bed. It was close to midnight when the game ended, but since Joe is still operating on Arizona time, that fit right into his schedule.

Decker Roadhouse Day 4 (4-6-2014)

Sunday.  Wasn't sure if I was going to keep the blog going while we are here, but I thought maybe I could write something every few days.  We have been getting settled in here, and people have been stopping by to see Lucille.  But since she hurt her back yesterday, she decided not to go to church this morning, so I'm sure there will be a lot of people at church disappointed that she didn't come.

The weather finally improved.  Although Friday was gray all day, I don't think it rained here.  Saturday was sunny and cool so that was a great improvement.  But the surrounding community has been under flood warnings since Thursday when both north and south of us got heavy rains.  In yesterday's paper was this quote:  "Out of [Indiana's] 92 counties, Knox County [Vincennes] is the only county that has rivers on three sides, the east, west and south, so as the water moves downstream it's coming right into Knox County."  Sunday was chilly, not much sunshine, and the house stayed cold all day. 

We had a quiet day, Lucille spent most of it sitting in the chair on a heating pad (which she intermittently turned off, up, down).  Joe installed some additional handrails in the bathroom.  Judy stopped by after church, then she and Fred came out for dinner after she worked at Penneys.  And then we played dominoes (Mexican train) until almost midnight.  Didn't hear any back complaints until the very end, so maybe it was good to get her mind off the back pain.

Decker Roadhouse - Days 1-3 (4/3/2014-4/5/2014)

Thursday.  We all survived the night even though we were visited by Indiana thunderstorms.  In fact, I woke up at 6:00 a.m. to thunder and lightning.  I think Lucille had a good night's sleep, and she was up futzing around in the kitchen when I came downstairs.  We got a bath in this morning, had breakfast, then had a nice visit from Billie and Marcie.  We can see that she is very happy to be around her family again.  We've gotten her mostly unpacked, and I washed a couple loads of clothes.  And I have a pot of ham and beans cooking.  So things are getting back to normal.

It's been rainy all day, intermittent storms but nothing severe.  But she has complained that it is very dark, and without any sunshine, the house is pretty dark.  She wants to make a trip upstairs today to see the new window at the end of the hallway.  We haven't tackled that yet, but it's probably on today's agenda. 

Rachelle stopped by with Clayton and Mallory for a visit.  Lucille is so happy to see her family, and they are all good about stopping by.

Friday.  Joe continues to do some maintenance around the house, replacing light fixtures and bulbs, fixing leaks in the basement, etc.   Joe has been making a daily trip to Lowe's.   Fred and Judy also came by for a while, and had some of our leftover ham and beans with us.  Judy had been down at church getting ready for the big LWML rally tomorrow.

Saturday.  When I came downstairs this morning, Lucille was getting back in bed.  She had been up to the bathroom and had bent over to pick up a hearing aid that had somehow fallen under her bed.  She must have tweaked her back in that process because it started hurting and she decided to get back in bed.  She got back up, and we got her shower in, but she complained of a backache all day.  Judy stopped by on her way home from the church rally, then Mike stopped by for a visit.  After supper, Adam and Jaclyn brought Judy Kay up to see her, so the family continues to rally around.  I went with Joe today on his trip to Lowe's and we picked up a few groceries at Walmart, then stopped for tenderloins at the Cash & Dash.  But Mike told Joe there is a better tenderloin spot just up the street, so he has that on his agenda for Monday.

Lucille's Road Trip - Day 7 (4-2-2014) Henderson, KY to Vincennes, IN

Wednesday.  We did not get an early start this morning.  Joe had decided we should do McDonald's for breakfast, and since our gray tank was full after I took a shower, I didn't argue with him.  But he wasn't moving early enough to get de-camped and to McDonald's before the 10:30 cut-off for breakfast, so we loaded up in the car and drove a mile to the closest Mickey Ds.  Then we came back, got everything put away to travel, and pulled up to the dump station.  By then it was 11:50, and we still had to fuel, but we were finally headed into Indiana.  We fueled in Evansville for $3.669 (the highest we have had to pay), but saw gas 20 miles down the road in Ft. Branch (Hucks) for $3.519.  Joe complained, but what are you going to do.  I always tell him there will be plenty of opportunities to buy gas again.

John called from Florida and told us a strange horse had shown up at his place, standing right by his car.  So he was dealing with that today, trying to figure out how to locate its owner.

We decided to drive on past Essex Road because that railroad crossing is pretty rough.  Just as we were passing Essex Road, however, Mike Froeschke called.  He said he had just passed us going the opposite way, he blinked his lights, honked, and rolled his window down and waved.  But we didn't see him.  But Joe said if he had seen all that, he would have thought something was probably falling off the RV, so maybe it was just as well.

We pulled in about 2:30.  It was raining, of course.  Fred said he knew I was close because I always bring the rain with me.  We only drove 59 miles today, but they were probably the most important miles.  And then we were back to the big old farmhouse.

Lucille was very happy to be home.  She went from room to room downstairs, checking everything out, checking her house plants, then she went out on the front porch and got the mail.  The house looked good, and there didn't seem to be any new problems in her absence.  Fred came out shortly thereafter, and I made a pot of chili (first time it had been cold enough for chili since we left Arizona).  He visited with his mother for quite a while, then Rachelle stopped by (broken collar bone and all) with Clayton and Mallory.  After everyone left (by then it was 7:30), Joe suggested we head into town for a Bobe's Pizza, always a highlight of being home.  Lucille wasn't too keen on making the trip until I promised her we could drive down 7th Street to see where the fire was on Monday night.  She looked the town over, but it was dark so we have to go back tomorrow so she can check on her town.

It was fun having her home and letting her futz around in her own territory, although I did remind her that I was still in charge of her.  We are all hoping to get a good night's sleep.

This concludes Lucille's Road Trip, at least the first chapter. This trip was 1765 miles, and we stayed in a different state every night.  We bought 230.87 gallons of fuel, and spent $791.73.  We figure we averaged somewhere around 7.5 mph, which considering the two days of strong winds we fought, that's probably not too bad.  I thought she would be more than done with traveling in the RV, but she's pretty interested in Florida, seeing Shooter as well as John and Bridgette, and seeing that new horse that adopted them today.  So who knows what lies ahead.

Lucille's Road Trip - Day 6 (4/1/2014) Mountain View, MO to Henderson, KY

Tuesday.  This will be our last night on the road, and we are probably no more than 70 miles from Lucille's house.  She really couldn't understand why we wouldn't go on in tonight, but we always like to spend the last night nearby so we can dump our tanks before we get to her house. 

We had a pretty good night again last night, although I had trouble getting back to sleep in the middle of the night.  We got on the road about 10:00 a.m., and when we passed the gas station we filled up at last night (when we missed the turn-off to the campground) we saw the price was 10 cents higher than yesterday.  We were curious about where Lucille would choose to sit today, since she was Goldilocks yesterday, trying out three different seats.  But she chose the co-pilot seat again, which surprised me.

We crossed the Mississippi River, then the Ohio River immediately afterwards about 2:15.  We didn't spend much time in Illinois.  We had never crossed here  at Cairo before and were quite surprised when the second river showed up.  I had put the camera down when Joe gave me a heads up that a second bridge was coming.

 We hit some rain about 20 miles from our campground destination in Henderson, KY.  At least we got the windows washed, which sorely needed washing.  We came through Paducah, KY for the first time, which seemed to take forever. As we neared the Kentucky/Indiana line, we started seeing coal mines and conveyor belts transporting the coal across  the highway. 

 We finally got to the Audubon State Park in Henderson about 5:45, and it was raining pretty good then, but it didn't last long.  So we loaded up, and headed for -- wait for it -- WHITE CASTLE.  It had cooled off by then, and I think it is supposed to be in the 50s tonight, with rain and thunderstorms forecast for the next 2-3 days.  Yes, we are back in Indiana.  In tornado season!  Joe drove 306 miles, but at least he wasn't fighting the wind. 

We should have Lucille home by noon tomorrow.  She was pretty wound up when we stopped tonight -- she couldn't believe we were going to stay all night in a "park," and she couldn't believe we were "camping in the rain."  She thought maybe she should call Fred to just come get her.  Of course, during these last 6 days she has from time to time mentioned trying to just get a bus to take her home, and yesterday she seemed to think she needed rescued (I think she thought we had abducted her and were never going to take her home).  But now that she's close to home, she's asking about when we have to head back, and that we should pick a different route.  So maybe she has enjoyed this trip more than we thought????

Lucille's Road Trip - Day 5 (3/31/2014) Bartelsville, OK to Mountain View, MO

Monday.  Well, we're getting there.  On this trip, all the "excellent adventures" are inside the RV. Thanks to Paul, my earlier blogs now have pictures posted.  And today I took a few with my camera so I could add them myself.

We drove 291 miles on Sunday, but we got off the road about 4:30.  After last night's shower, laundry, and dinner at Golden Corral, she played a few hands of solitaire while we watched TV, but we all went to bed fairly early.  We did work in about a half-hour of outside time while we waited for the laundry to dry.  Joe got the lawn chairs out and set them up right in front of the laundry trailer, and we had a nice breeze.  We were all tired by the end of the day, but Lucille probably had her best night's sleep of the trip so far, I think she only woke up once, and that was about 4:00 a.m.

 And we all slept in till almost 8:30, when she got up and started "doubling up" her bedding.  Guess that meant it was time to get up and on the move.  Her mantra has been "on the road again."  We de-camped about 9:30 and found a McDonalds.  Joe and I went in and got breakfast to go, then we sat on their parking lot and ate. 

We thought we would try her riding at the dinette table to give her a break from the front seat, and give her some different pressure points.  But she thought she "swayed too much" at the table, so Joe pulled over and we moved her back to the co-pilot's seat.  We are seeing a few daffodils and little purple flowers blooming along our route now.  It's still pretty windy, hope Missouri is a little calmer.  At our next stop, Lucille decided to try out the blue recliner, and that's where she stayed the rest of the day.  The first time Joe tried to get her buckled up, he turned the seat and the buckle does not turn with the chair ,so it was getting tight across her belly.  She hollered a bit until he readjusted the seat belt.  She said it was a comfortable chair, and I think she even dozed off a few times.  She hasn't been getting any naps in in the front seat -- she's too busy keeping Joe in line, driving straight, not too fast or not too slow, and keeping him awake. 

Joe discovered that a crack had developed from a "star" in the front windshield overnight, but he hopes to wait until we get back in Arizona before he has to deal with that.  We had plenty of windshield issues on last year's trip, so I'm sure the insurance company will be thrilled to hear from us again.

One sight today was Twin Bridges State Park on the Grand Lake of the Cherokees.  Looked like a nice campground.  I had seen that state park in my camping book but you never know what facilities they might have.  But it looked really nice, and there was a casino just down from it

We passed a couple more nice casinos with campgrounds just before we crossed the state line in Missouri.  But that would have been another hour or so driving yesterday to get over to here, and that was probably too far.  We crossed the Missouri state line about 12:20, and made a 45 minute stop on a Lowe's parking lot to have lunch in the RV in Monett, Missouri.

We made it to mid-Missouri today, 280 miles (but 10 miles of that was backtracking because we missed our campground and decided to drive on into town to fuel up).  We actually had stayed at this campground a few years ago, when it was 114 in Springfield, Missouri.  We were on our way to Branson for the first time during their record-setting heat wave, maybe 2011.

Since I finally got the front seat, I spotted some wildlife -- a wild turkey (along with some roadkill).  As we entered one town, there was a one of those yellow "crossing" signs with a horse and buggy picture.  So I got my camera ready just in case we saw one.  And sure enough, one was coming right alongside the road beside us, but I guess I'm rusty on my camera moves because I missed the picture.  I even tried to take a picture of the sign and I missed that too.  

We ran into a few sprinkles today, and it was cloudy about all day, still very windy.  But once we set up camp, the sun came through so we got to sit outside for a few minutes until it got too cool.  We had a light supper, and she played cards for a while, Joe watched TV, and I worked on this blog.  We are definitely getting closer!

Lucille's Road Trip - Day 4 (3/30/2014) Canadian, TX to Bartlesville, OK

Sunday.  We did have a better night again, although Lucille had to get up a couple times during the night for the bathroom.  But when she woke up this morning about 7:30, she thought the ladies from the church were coming and she had to get things ready for them.  She has vivid dreams.  We had breakfast and left the campground about 9:30,  heading east.  We left Texas behind at 10:05 and started across Oklahoma.  Oklahoma was very, very windy.  Joe had to hang on to the steering wheel all day, so he was really tired by the time we stopped.

We saw a lot of burned out fields, we don't know if they were control fires, fields being burned for new growth, or something else.  We also saw lots of cattle again today.  We wanted to get off the road a little earlier tonight so our destination was Bartlesville, OK.  We got there about 4:30, got set up, then went down to use the campground shower for Lucille and the laundry next door.  I did learn that I have been remiss in my training of my husband of 45 years.  I asked him to start the laundry while I helped Lucille with her shower.  He said he didn't know how to do that, so I told him just to put the white and lights together, and the darks in the other washer.  He asked about the towels and I told him he could put them in either one.  When I went to help put them in the dryer, he had a red shirt in with the whites.  I casually mentioned that I wouldn't consider that "whites and lights."  Then I got white socks out of the washer with the jeans.  So I said "I consider these whites and lights."  He replied, "no, these socks are heavy, not light."   I forgot to mention I was sorting by color, not weight.  Oh well, live and learn.  I did call Tiffany and tell her to make sure she trains Cody a little better than I did her dad.

After our chores, we found a Golden Corral in town and had a nice dinner with salad and vegetables, which Joe thought we all needed.  We got back to the camper and settled in for the night.  Lucille played solitaire for a while, and Joe watched TV.  It is still breezy outside but no longer gale force winds.  I think it was in the 70s here today, so we are very curious about the weather for the rest of the trip.

Lucille's Road Trip - Day 3(3/29/2014) Fort Sumner, NM to Canadian, OK

Saturday.  We had a better night last night sleeping than the first night, so we all feel a little better today.  The dinette bed worked better than the sofa, and Lucille only woke up once during the night.  So after breakfast and getting things put away, we de-camped, fueled and were on the road by 9:55, a little better than yesterday.  It was 39 when I got up, 57 when we got on the road, another clear, sunny day but we have a little wind again.  We have seen a couple windmill farms, so I know the wind blows here about all the time.  We met several semis hauling replacement parts including the blades which are very long. We crossed the Texas state line at 11:11, and we lost another hour to time zones.  We are now in cattle country, and we have been passing huge feedlots (one was Cargill).    Lucille didn't think the scenery changed much at the state line.  Gas was 20 cents cheaper coming across Texas, especially around Amarillo, than it was where we fueled.  We paid $3.499 but were seeing it at $3.299 until it was time for us to fuel again, then of course, it was back up.  We finally got into some farming country but Lucille wasn't too interested.  She did like seeing a tractor every once in a while. 

It is obvious that Lucille is not a veteran camper or water conservationist.  She doesn't know about turning off the water when you brush your teeth, etc., but we decided not to confuse her with any more things so we just cringe when we hear the water running.  We had lunch on the road, as we came into Amarillo, just deli chicken, crackers, cheese, and chips.  Unfortunately, it was all about the same color so Lucille had a hard time distinguishing between the different items.  She was in charge of fixing Joe's sandwiches, and he never knew what he was going to get.  He was hoping for chicken on cracker, maybe with a little cheese slice, but sometimes he just got chicken on a potato chip.  He said that was different but tasted pretty good.

We drove 273 miles today.  We stopped for the night in Canadian, Texas, right by the Canadian River.  I'll have to ask Marilyn and Collins if that counts for a trip to Canada.  Wasn't much of a campground, but it did have full hook-ups which is what we were looking for.  Actually, Canadian wasn't much of a town.  We ended up at Pizza Hut, but it was mediocre at best.

I'm having trouble posting pictures so I'm not doing them until we (Cathy and Paul) get it figured out for me.

Lucille's Road Trip - Day 2 (3/28/2014) Eager AZ to Fort Sumner, NM

Friday.  We still aren't getting very early starts, but we were fed and fueled and on the road by 10:25.  By that time, it was 61 degrees, clear, blue skies, no wind initially but we picked up wind later int he day.  Joe got his mother out of the RV this morning and she had a brief walk before she took her co-pilot position with her moose. 

We crossed into New Mexico pretty quickly and headed across the vastness of New Mexico.  We stopped in Socorro for lunch, at Denny's of all places because that's the only place we could find to park.  By the time we drove around, and turned around, got parked and ate, almost 2 hours had  gone by.  But Joe was in the driving zone today, so he just kept at it.  We made it all the way to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, 344 miles.  It was 6:40 by the time we stopped (we had lost an hour in time zones today)..  We stayed at Valley View RV Park, a little campground right on U.S. 60, got hooked up to electricity, then drove across the road to Fred's Restaurant for dinner. 

It was a nice evening, we were at an elevation of 4017.  We passed miles and miles of desert today, with just scrub brush.  Joe spotted a dead antelope along the side of the road, and shortly after that we saw a small herd of about a dozen pronghorn.  This is pretty desolate country, and Lucille keeps watching for crops in the fields.  We did finally begin to see some cattle, but the only green we saw was around Socorro where the Rio Grande River crosses.  We also crossed the Pecos River today, and it had some water running in it.

I'm not in a very good picture-taking position this trip, but so far there hasn't been too much to see.  We did spot some smoke today just before we turned off of I-25, but we didn't hear what was burning.

We didn't watch much TV tonight, by the time we got back from dinner we were all tired enough to call it a day.  We fixed the dinette into a bed for Lucille and hope tonight goes better than last night.  We can tell her knees get weak from sitting all day, so we probably need to try to do a little more walking during the course of the day.  This is a learning experience for all of us, but we are well on our way.  We've come 554 miles in 2 days so Indiana better be finding SPRING!!!

Lucille's Road Trip - Day 1 (3/27/2014) Mesa to Eager, AZ

Thursday.  Finally, the day has come for us to head to Vincennes.  Lucille is READY! We still had a few things to do, so it was 10:25 before we actually loaded up and headed out our bumpy, dirt road for the last time.

It was a beautiful morning, 61 degrees, sunny and calm.  We had plans to meet up with Dave and Mazie at the casino in Payson to give them the pecans we had picked up for them, so that was our first destination.  We had a few flies traveling with us, and Lucille was in charge of the fly swatter.  But when Joe asked for it to swat one on his window, she wouldn't give it to him  because he was driving.  Joe handed her one of our traveling zoo animals (moose) to hold while she rode, so she babysat the moose all day (that kept her from holding on to the seat belt).

We got to Payson right at noon, visited with the Johnsons for a while, had lunch, and I won $20.37.  We had an issue going up the mountains, steam coming out of the vent from the new auxiliary heater that Joe had replaced, so he had to do a little maintenance on the casino parking lot. One of the heater hoses was dripping around the clamp, so he tightened up all the clamps and thought he had it fixed, but as the day continued, he thought we were still having problems so when we stopped at Eager, Arizona (Bear Paw Campground) for the night, he investigated further and found that he had somehow missed putting one clamp back on.  So he got that fixed, and hopefully we are good to go tomorrow.

Lucille finally got to move out of the co-pilot's seat when we got to the campground, and I thought she would probably like something familiar, so I got out her solitaire cards and she played a few games while Joe did his maintenance and I got our meal on the table.

After our pretty full lunch at the casino, we just had a light dinner in the RV (tomato soup, ham salad, beets and pickles.
 

Then we watched TV for a while.

She thought maybe she could wash the dishes, so instead I told her she could sit at the table and I would put the clean dishes in front of her and she could dry them.   She was ready to go to bed by 7:00 but she managed to stay up until about 8:30.

We watched her favorite TV shows, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, then we got her settled in the made-out couch.

But it was a rough night.  She went to sleep pretty good but after the first bathroom trip (11:30), she had trouble getting settled.  I got up once when I saw her remaking her bed.  Then, the next time, she was sitting on the side of the bed, so I got up again.  She had turned over and saw the little orange light on the heater we had put up front, and thought there was a fire, or at least that it was a flame.  Finally, I switched places with her so Joe got her for the rest of the night.  But that made-out sofa is not very comfortable, so we have a new plan for Friday night -- we are going to try her on the sofa without making it out.  We have one other option, we can make out the dinette, so we will see if that becomes necessary. Our bed is too high for her so we are trying to figure out an alternative to giving up our bed to her.

As far as the drive itself, she worries about a lot of things. In addition to helping Joe drive, she thinks she needs to keep talking to him to keep him awake.  She's not fond of driving on curvy roads, or through mountains, and she wasn't too impressed with the burn-out area of the Rodeo-Chedeski forest fire of 2002, where regrowth is beginning to make a difference.  Among other things she found to complain about.  LOL. All of us who know her well know she likes to complain.  I guess when you almost 98, that's your right. 

We got off the road at 4:45 (she was ready to end the day a couple hours before that).  We drove 192 miles, but are still in Arizona.

She was up by 7:00 a.m. but Joe wasn't ready to give up his warm spot in bed just yet.  It was 30 degrees up here in the mountains this morning, we are at an elevation of 7078.We will probably stay somewhere in New Mexico Friday night.

We are taking our pictures from our Smart Phones rather than the camera and I haven't figured out a good way to upload them to the blog, so for this first issue, I've just emailed them to myself, then copied and pasted them into this blog.  I don't know how well they will come through, and I hope, with Cathy's help, to figure out a better and more efficient way of posting the pictures.
 

Heading Home, Finally (Tues.)

Today is packing-up day.  Finally, we'll be back in our own beds tonight.  We got loaded up and were pulling out about 10:30.  Jeff and Brenda, who had much more to load, were about an hour behind us. And Sherry and Danny didn't really start until Jeff and Brenda vacated the campsite, so I'm not sure what time they headed out.  But their plan was just to go to the Petrified Forest.  However, a storm blew in, and they continued on to Williams.

We stopped in Show Low for sodas, then headed down off the mountains.  We hit heavy rain, and even a little hail, between Show Low and Overgard, but other than that, it was good driving, with me in the big red truck pulling the box trailer, following the Purple Palace with Joe in the lead.  We got to Payson just before 2:00, so we pulled into the casino, had lunch, and gambled for an hour or so to take a break.  (We won just enough to pay for our lunch.) We left there at 4:00 and pulled into our house about 5:30.  It's about 220 miles from our house to the campground at Big Lake, going through Payson.  Jeff and Brenda came down through Salt River Canyon, which he thinks is closer.  Both are pretty drives, but the Salt River Canyon way is a harder pull, so me being a rookie truckdriver pulling a load chose the Payson way.

We could see that it had rained recently because we had puddles on our dirt road, but it wasn't raining anymore and it was HOT HOT HOT.  Inside our house was 95 so it took a while to get that cooled down.  We unloaded just the essentials, went out for pizza, and came back and watched some TV until about 9:00.  Then we went to bed.  We know we have a lot of work ahead of us in the next few days, but it felt good to be home. 

Last ride at Big Lake (Mon.)

Today was SUNNY!!!.  Our one and only sunny day here at Big Lake, so we decided to go on a LONG ride.  We knew it was going to be a good day because Jeff spotted a horny toad in the campground, our first wildlife for a while, so we will surely see more today.  Sherry chased it out of the road, so then she picked it up so I could get a picture.

Jeff decided we should go to Hannagan Meadow for lunch, so off we went.  Jeff, our leader, spooked a small herd of bucks right beside the road, but Joe and I didn't see them.  He said there were 8, all bucks.  They call these "bachelor buck herds."  He said he had seen elk like this, but never deer.  When they took off, 6 went one way, and 2 the other, but Joe and I missed them all.  We were mostly on main forest roads, but once we got to Hwy 191, we had pavement for about 8 miles.  We had a real nice lunch at the resort there, enjoyed our first blue skies of the week.

Across the road from the resort is a nice meadow that Jeff said used to have elk grazing in it.  But since the 2011 Wallow fire, the elk have formed different habits.  And this year, with all the lush meadows and water everywhere, apparently they don't move far from where they bed down.  We sure haven't seen many.

 There was a real nice bench, with matching chairs, on the porch of the lodge.  Couldn't figure out how to pack this back on the quads, but it would be a nice place to sit and watch elk from across the road, if they ever showed up.

This ride took us past some beautiful scenery, including a river (I think it was the West Fork of the
Black Riveragain) and Beaver Creek.  We saw some interesting concrete formations which I believe are used as water diversions to keep from washing out the road.  Never seen anything like these before.

 You can see that Beaver Creek cut quite a swath through here.  And it was running.

We kept seeing little patches of some kind of red flowers under some of the pine trees.  I finally took a picture but it doesn't do it justice.  It was a nice, colorful patch in the green meadow.

Finally, we got to see some antelope.  Brenda spotted a herd of about 16, so we got to stop and watch them for a while.

We had left our better pair of binoculars at the RV because they had gotten moisture in them, so Joe dug out our back-up set.  But, alas, there was a malfunction.  However, he was able to re-engineer them so we at least got a look at the antelope.

We've seen lots of nice aspen groves up here, some pretty young trees but lots of older ones that didn't get destroyed in the fire.  I would love to come back when their leaves turn this fall.

As we neared the campground, I took one last picture of these beautiful meadows here.  To me, this is the prettiest part of our beautiful state, which has so many different looks.  We are really anxious to get home, but this was a nice way to end our long summer trip.

Today's ride was 80.5 miles, and Joe's gas tank was flashing empty.  Mine also said "empty" but it hadn't started flashing yet.  We spent almost 8 hours in the saddle, including an hour stop for lunch at Hanagan Meadow, so we could barely walk when we got back.  But it didn't rain on us all day, and the temperature was good.  Sometimes we had rainsuits on, but sometimes we took them off.  Our dinner tonight was "clean out the fridge and eat the leftovers," so it didn't take too long to get that heated up.  (Brenda did most of the cooking tonight, but I supervised.)  We all deemed today as an Excellent Adventure, with the sunshine and the antelope as the highlights.

Jeff corrected me on the "bachelor butt herds."  I mis-heard him.  He said it was "bachelor buck herds," so I have since changed it.

Last ride at Big Lake (Mon.)

Today was SUNNY!!!.  Our one and only sunny day here at Big Lake, so we decided to go on a LONG ride.  We knew it was going to be a good day because Jeff spotted a horny toad in the campground, our first wildlife for a while, so we will surely see more today.  Sherry chased it out of the road, so then she picked it up so I could get a picture.

Jeff decided we should go to Hannagan Meadow for lunch, so off we went.  Jeff, our leader, spooked a small herd of bucks right beside the road, but Joe and I didn't see them.  He said there were 8, all bucks.  They call these "bachelor buck herds."  He said he had seen elk like this, but never deer.  When they took off, 6 went one way, and 2 the other, but Joe and I missed them all.  We were mostly on main forest roads, but once we got to Hwy 191, we had pavement for about 8 miles.  We had a real nice lunch at the resort there, enjoyed our first blue skies of the week.

Across the road from the resort is a nice meadow that Jeff said used to have elk grazing in it.  But since the 2011 Wallow fire, the elk have formed different habits.  And this year, with all the lush meadows and water everywhere, apparently they don't move far from where they bed down.  We sure haven't seen many.

 There was a real nice bench, with matching chairs, on the porch of the lodge.  Couldn't figure out how to pack this back on the quads, but it would be a nice place to sit and watch elk from across the road, if they ever showed up.

This ride took us past some beautiful scenery, including a river (I think it was the West Fork of the
Black Riveragain) and Beaver Creek.  We saw some interesting concrete formations which I believe are used as water diversions to keep from washing out the road.  Never seen anything like these before.

 You can see that Beaver Creek cut quite a swath through here.  And it was running.

We kept seeing little patches of some kind of red flowers under some of the pine trees.  I finally took a picture but it doesn't do it justice.  It was a nice, colorful patch in the green meadow.

Finally, we got to see some antelope.  Brenda spotted a herd of about 16, so we got to stop and watch them for a while.

We had left our better pair of binoculars at the RV because they had gotten moisture in them, so Joe dug out our back-up set.  But, alas, there was a malfunction.  However, he was able to re-engineer them so we at least got a look at the antelope.

We've seen lots of nice aspen groves up here, some pretty young trees but lots of older ones that didn't get destroyed in the fire.  I would love to come back when their leaves turn this fall.

As we neared the campground, I took one last picture of these beautiful meadows here.  To me, this is the prettiest part of our beautiful state, which has so many different looks.  We are really anxious to get home, but this was a nice way to end our long summer trip.

Today's ride was 80.5 miles, and Joe's gas tank was flashing empty.  Mine also said "empty" but it hadn't started flashing yet.  We spent almost 8 hours in the saddle, including an hour stop for lunch at Hanagan Meadow, so we could barely walk when we got back.  But it didn't rain on us all day, and the temperature was good.  Sometimes we had rainsuits on, but sometimes we took them off.  Our dinner tonight was "clean out the fridge and eat the leftovers," so it didn't take too long to get that heated up.  (Brenda did most of the cooking tonight, but I supervised.)  We all deemed today as an Excellent Adventure, with the sunshine and the antelope as the highlights.