Happy Birthday Bev and Cook-out Plans

Rantoul, IL.

54 deg. clear, no wind.

Forecast = Sunny. Highs in the lower 80s. Light north winds.


Jim spent much of the day yesterday visiting with Denny and Dave. Linda worked on her Family Tree program and in the afternoon, baked a cake.

You see, yesterday was Bev's birthday and being that there were already plans to get together with Denny and Bev for pizza, Linda decided to bake a small birthday cake for Bev. : ) 

So, about 5:00, Linda called Monical's Pizza to have a pizza delivered and then a little later Jim and Linda headed over there.

Jim and Linda both said that the pizza was good and everyone seemed to enjoy the cake. I thought that I might hear them singing "Happy Birthday" to Bev, but I understand that she really didn't want them to do that. ; )

While they were eating pizza and birthday cake, quite a rain storm came through the area. It rained really hard for  awhile and we even had some thunder!  Jim was concerned because he had left my windows open, but it was OK as the rain was pretty much straight down, and my window awnings did their job and kept the rain out.

Today, Dorthy and Gordy are coming for awhile. They'll be driving down here in their car and will be heading back home this evening. Since they're coming down today, there's going to be "cook-out" where everyone will bring a dish to share and they'll cook hot dogs and brats over a camp fire.

It should be fun! ; )

Did you know that on this date in1959 - Hawaii became the 50th state?

Doctor's Appointment and A Suprise Visit

Rantoul, IL.

68 deg. partly cloudy, no wind.

Forecast = Partly sunny with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 80s. Light east winds becoming northwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation 50 percent.


Yesterday was the day that Linda had to go to see her doctor in Fisher, IL., for her annual check-up and to get her prescriptions renewed. She always gets very anxious just before she goes to the doctor but everything went well and unless there's a problem with the results of the blood test that they took, it looks like she's "Good to Go" for another year!!! : )

Because of the blood test, Linda couldn't eat anything in the morning, so from the doctor's office they headed over to the Village Garden Restaurant, (also in Fisher), and had a very nice breakfast. ; )

While they were eating, the phone rang and it was Dave, (One of the "Illinois Bunch"). He and Dee Dee were out and about and wanted to know if it would be OK if they stopped by for awhile, in about an hour and a half? Jim told Dave that would be fine and that he and Lind were looking forward to seeing them.

So, after finishing their breakfasts, Jim and Linda headed back here to make the inside of me presentable. : )

I think if was around noon when Dave and Dee Dee pulled up in the parking area in front of me. After h and h, (hugs and handshakes), they came inside of me and had a very nice visit.

It sure was good to see them again, but all too soon, they had to leave. : (  But, I'm hoping that I'll be seeing them again real soon. Hopefully the whole "Illinois Bunch" can make it here to the CG for a get-together, sometime before we leave.

Speaking about leaving, Jim has been doing some planning and it looks like we'll need to leave here around the 20th of September so that we can head East to to see Mike and Joe and their families, (with stops along the way to see a couple of Linda's cousins and Roland and Louise),  Anna who is now living in Jacksonville, FL. and get down to DeBary, FL. in time to get a decent site at the Highbanks CG for the winter.

Whew!!!! Looks like I'll be putting on quite a few more miles before the end of the year!!! ; )

After Dave and Dee Dee left not a whole lot happened. We had some t-storms go through the area, but here at he CG we only had about 96 drops of rain. : (   Most of the rest of the day was spent watching TV, and doing normal things.

Did you know that American, Eddie Eagan is the only person to have won gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Games? He was a boxing champion in the 1920 Antwerp Games, and also won gold at the 1932 Lake Placid Games in the team bobsled event.

Eyes, Another New Plan and The CG Is Filling Up.

Rantoul, IL.

69 deg. clear, S. wind @ 4 mph.

Forecast = Hot. Sunny. Highs in the upper 90s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph.


I'll bet you thought I fell into a pothole or something, didn't you? Well, I didn't. I've been just waiting to find out what is going on with Jim's eyes.

If you remember, Jim went to the eye doctor on Tuesday and he found, by doing a scan of the back of the eye, what he thought may be some serious problems. An appointment was made with another eye doctor for yesterday, and so yesterday afternoon, Jim and Linda went to see her.

After an inspection of Jim's eyes and more tests, it was determined that there were no serious problems at this time and that what problems there were should be able to be taken care of my medication.

Whew!!!! : )

What the first doctor saw was, what looked like, damage from someone who has glaucoma, but Jim didn't have high eye pressures or any other signs of the disease. There is however, a type of glaucoma where the eye pressure does not raise significantly but the same damage occurs, only at a slower rate.

This is what the first doctor thought may be going on.

Anyway, if there is any glaucoma damage at all, it's very slight and by using medication, Jim should have good vision for many years to come. : )  Jim still has to go back for a follow-up appointment on the 16th of this month but the eye doctor said that she saw no reason why we wouldn't be able to head out of here right after that.

So, . . . . .the big eraser came out again and now, as plan "E" shows, we'll be leaving here on Monday, the 19th. A few days later than was originally planned, but still very do-able without too many changes.

What has been going on around here the last few days? Nothing!!! The temperatures have been in the upper 90's every day, there has been no activity here in the CG, and to be honest, Jim didn't feel like doing anything because he was quite worried about his eyes and what it could mean as far as his and Linda's future as far as full-timing.

Yesterday, quite a few RVs came into the CG and today there should be a lot more. Louise says that every site is booked for the Labor Day weekend. Tonight they are forecasting storms and then cooler temperatures after that. I don't like the idea of storms but I hope they're right about the cooler temps because the "Illinois Bunch" will be coming to see me next week and it would be good if the weather co-operated so everyone can enjoy being outdoors. : )

Did you know that the first big Labor Day in the United States was observed on September 5, 1882?

A Slow Morning and Eye Doctor Visits In The Afternoon

Rantoul, IL.

64 deg. mostly cloudy, SE wind @ 7 mph.

Forecast = Partly sunny with isolated showers in the morning...then mostly sunny in the afternoon. Highs around 90. South winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 20 percent.


Not much going on around here yesterday, the CG is really quiet. Neither Jim or Linda seemed to have much ambition and I think part of the problem was that they knew they had to go to the eye doctor in the afternoon.

I don't know what it is about appointments in the afternoon, but it seems like you don't want to get started doing anything because you know you'll have to quit what you are doing to go to the appointment. If the appointment is in the morning, you can go, get it over with and do what you want to do without having to stop in the middle of something.

Well, anyway, about 2:00 Jim and Linda took CLT and headed down to Champaign to see the retinaologist.
CLT said that there was all kinds of construction on I-57 and he was almost late getting them there. Once there, it didn't take too long until they were being examined.

The examinations consisted of a scan of the retina and a complete check of the eyes. I'm happy to report that Linda's eyes are doing fine and she's good to go for another year. : )  Jim, however, has some problems. : (  In fact, the doctor wants him to see another eye doctor before we leave here and his receptionist even called the other eye doctor and set up an appointment for this Friday.

Needless to say, Jim is not a happy camper about this. Now, he's worried that we won't be able to leave here on the 15th of September like planned. He also isn't fond of going to doctors in general, so this is adding to his apprehension.

I don't think he's going to be in a very good mood the next few days. : (

Did you know that the eye can process 36,000 bits of information every hour?

A Few Pictures Of The Tractor Ride and Hurricane Irene

Rantoul, IL

64 deg. clear, no wind.

Forecast = Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 80s. North winds 10 to 15 mph.

Here's some pictures that Jim took of that "Tractor Ride" that they had the other day. I don't know the make of all the tractors but maybe you can figure it out if you click on the picture to enlarge it.

This one I know is an old John Deer.

Have no idea who made this blue tractor.

This is just a picture of a bunch of tractors heading down the road. I would guesstimate that there were about 75 tractors that passed by the CG.

As you can see, this guy took parts of an old truck and mounted them on a tractor. (Looked pretty neat). : )

Can't tell what kind of tractor this is? (Maybe a ford)?

This is a Minneapolis Moline and it looked just like new.

There were many, many more tractors, but this gives you an idea of what it was like watching them go by.

Hopefully Jim will be able to get some pictures of the "field demonstrations" that they will be having today in the fields right next to the CG. If he takes some I'll post some of them here, so stay tuned! ; )

I'm happy to report that hurricane Irene has now been downgraded to a category 1 as it heads directly towards Virginia Beach where Joe and his family live. As of this morning the winds have dropped down into the 90 mph range which is much better than what they were.

Needless to say, both Linda and Jim are very concerned about the situation out there. : (

Did you know that the first gasoline farm tractors were introduced in 1910?

I Didn't Like It and Onawa, IA to Kellogg, IA.

Kellogg, IA

70 deg., clear, no wind.

Forecast = Sunny. Patchy fog through mid morning. High in the upper 80s. East wind around 5 mph shifting to the south in the afternoon.

We left Onawa about 9:55 and continued South on I-29. Jim had been told that because of the flooded Missouri River, I-29 was closed down by Council Bluff, but what he hadn't been told, (and neither had I), that I-29 would have been closed even farther North if it hadn't been for sand bags stacked along side of the road, holding millions and millions of gallons of water back!!!

Now, I'm not usually affected by water in the ditch, in a river or even flowing across the road if it's only a couple of inches deep, but folks, this water that was held back by the sandbags was clearly quite a bit higher than the roadway and was being fed by the whole flooded Missouri River!!! I just couldn't stop watching the sandbags as we passed through the area watching for leaks!!! And I couldn't help thinking, "If one of those sand bags doesn't hold, I'm going to go swimming and I can't swim"!!!!  : O

Luckily, the area with the sand bags wasn't too wide, the sand bags held and soon we were again higher than the water. : )

Once to Council Bluff all the traffic was diverted onto I-680 heading East. That was fine with me because that's the way we wanted to go anyway, and the road soon climbed to higher ground. Not too far East, and after 680 joined up with I-80, all the traffic come to a screeching halt!!! There was a construction area where all the traffic had to funnel down into one land and 2 cars both decided to use the same piece of road at the same time, resulting in a pretty bad accident.  The traffic was backed up for about 7 miles and it took us about 1/2 hour to get through the area. After that, everything went pretty well and by about 2:20 we were pulling into the Kellogg RV Park just off of the Interstate at exit 173.

It took us 4 hours and 25 minutes to travel 217 miles.

I don't really know what to say about this park. The full hook-up sites are quite level, out in the open, very long, but not very wide. There are some shady sites that are not full hook-up farther back in the park that look nice, but there's no sewer and I think they only have 30 amp electric. To get to the park, you have to enter through the Phillips 66 gas station and then go into the station to register. Everyone was friendly and the price is reasonable, so we stayed here for the night.

Also, they have a little Cafe inside of the gas station where they sell sandwiches. They have a few booths in there to sit on but they're right in the store area. So, when dinner time rolled around, Jim went up there and bought a couple sandwiches to go. Jim got the BBQ Roast Beef for himself, (which he said was very good) and a Tenderloin sandwich for Linda, (which she also said was very good). The sandwiches along with some chips and a cold beverage made a nice meal.

Today, I need to be at the HWH factory in Moscow, IA by 11:00 for my appointment to have my hydraulic leveling system worked on. It's about 95 miles over there from here, so we'll probably be leaving here about 9:00. I have no idea how long it will take to make the repairs, so I have no idea where I'll be tonight. Linda and Jim have been to a park over by Davenport quite a few years ago, so that's always a possibility.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see how it goes.

Did you know that the world's smallest city park is in Hiteman, Iowa, and consists of a single blade of grass growing through a crack in the sidewalk?

It's Official!! I'm A South Dakotan!!!

Sioux Falls, SD.

69 deg. clear, no wind.

Forecast = Partly cloudy. Highs around 83. East winds 5 to 10 mph becoming southeast in the afternoon.


It's official!!! I'm finally licensed in South Dakota and have an official address!!! ; )

I was getting worried because on the 17th, my temporary license ran out and I've been sitting here in the CG with absolutely no official home!!  If  for some reason Jim and Linda wouldn't have been able to get me registered in SD, I wouldn't have been able to go out on the road and I'd have had to just sit here in this park forever!! : (

After Jim and Linda picked up my registration at Alternative Resources, they stopped at a store called, World Market. CLT said that they had all kinds of stuff in the store and lot of it was on sale. Anyway, Jim and Linda went in and when they came out, they had a chair to use at my new desk, (they had been using one of my folding kitchen chairs), a hamper to put in the bathroom to put dirty clothes in, along with a very nice looking 2 1/2 quart plastic pitcher to replace the glass one that had gotten broken the other day when it fell out of my cabinet when we went around a corner and hit a bump at the same time. : (

This morning Jim and Linda will be taking me over to the Cummins / Onan repair place to get the diesel fuel leak on my generator repaired. I've found out that he also wants them to check out my alternator because he doesn't think its charging the chassis batteries properly.

I'm hoping that all of this doesn't take too long because they don't have anywhere to plug me into electric at the shop. My main concern is the food in my refrigerator. The fridge will run off of the batteries / inverter for quite awhile but it would be better if I was plugged in or my generator was usable.

Did you know that Sioux Falls was the boyhood home of Minnesota-born actor Richard Widmark?

I'm Worried, Problems and A Few Pictures

Rantoul, IL.

72 deg. clear, SE wind @ 7 mph.

Forecast, Showers and thunderstorms likely. Highs in the mid 80s. South winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts to around 25 mph. Chance of precipitation 60 percent.

Oh! No!!!!! I'm worried!!!!!! Yesterday I was wondering if anything important would happen for me to write about, and now I wish there wasn't!!!  : (

 First of all, there's a problem with my main awning!! You can put it out but when you want to retract it, it stops and you have to wait for awhile before you can retract it some more and then it stops again!!! Second, my Aqua Hot furnace has developed an anti-freeze leak. Third, when Jim went to dump my tanks, he took off the sewer cap and got a handful of sewage water, and then when he went to flush the black water tank, water squirted all over the place!!!! Then, to top it off, Jim fell down my entry steps!!!! I don't think he hurt himself too bad, (mostly his left leg), but I think he's going to be sore this morning. : ( 

What I'm worried about is that if I'm having these problems and I already caused Jim to get hurt, will they want to keep me? I heard Jim talking to Steve, (the foreman at R & S where they bought me), on the phone and they're taking me back there tomorrow.

I'll bet Myrddin is still there and they just might put all their belongings back in him and leave me there!!!! Then what would I do? Once an RV gets "tagged" as a "lemon" or a "bad luck RV", they just set on the dealers lots for years and years until the dealer finally sells them as junk!!!!

I know!! I've seen it happen!!!!

Oh, No, What am I going to do???????

I was going to show you a few pictures of me that Jim had taken, but now I don't know if I should or not. But, I guess I might as well. : (

This is of me sitting in site #5 here at Prairie Pines Campground

This second picture shows my 2 slides on my left side. The front one has the couch, stove and sink it it, so it's pretty big and extends about 18"  The rear slide has the head of the bed in it, and extends about 24"

Jim and Linda have both been working on organizing their things. Linda spent most of the afternoon yesterday going through old papers and documents and Jim worked some more on the things in my basement. Then for dinner they went to Monical's Pizza.
I sure hope today goes better than yesterday, I"m not getting off to a very good start. : (

A Point to Ponder : Grandmas are just ancient little girls.