Ohhhhhh-eeeeeeeeee.... our last day, sadness and despair :(

Everyday Life

Well, again did not get to the bench to sit & gaze at the River!!! But here is a pic of me and my friend, Carol, me with Guthrie and Guthrie discovering the M & M's... we all went to the Machine Shed for dinner, a family/farm oriented place and pretty darn yummy, the final gathering of all of us, JOHN had to work, sad for him.. but someone has to work :} and we had gone out with him before for BBQ.. It is sad saying good-bye, next time i see them Guthrie will almost be 4!!!!!!
Everyone is getting ready for Halloween here...
I dread the long trip home and driving all day.
I wish my friends and i could share everyday life all the time....

Moved!!!

Well, Monday we got carol moved, and i use 'we' very loosely, she had 4 burly guys come from Argo moving here in Davenport and they were great!!!! only took 5 1/2 hours and ALL of her things were here in her dear little house and the cable got hooked up later that day, things are sort of racked and stacked about. beds up and living room servicable. so, what more do you need??? of course if we/she ever wants to eat out of the kitchen, she will have to do a bit more in there :)...
Today we, again use that term loosely, have Guthrie for the afternoon. We are going to walk up to the benches by the River this evening, will get a picture on here tomorrow.
Leaving for Oregon and home on Thursday.
Take care of each other.

What else is there to say?

These billboards are all over the place here in the MidWest
Take Care and God Bless

Well, today we packed as you can see by the picture, and THEN Carol cooked!!!! which was really the wrong order to do things, because the recipe was packed as were the measuring cups/spoons and dishes!!! Ha-Ha, it was pretty funny, she had to e-mail her sister in Washington to get the correct ingredients for Chicken Divan, which they have a family recipe for and is really beyond yummy, my favorite thing that she makes and everytime i visit she fixes it for me at least once!!! lucky me, and tomorrow we get leftovers too!
rain this morning off and on, but not really too bad, but revved up the humidity a bit. It is grey here, grey, grey, grey..

This morning i took a Copics technique class, learning how to use these pens to color stamped images for my cards :) seemingly, it should be easy, and come to find out it was pretty much BUT we did not know how to do the different shadings and whatnot, now i do and hopefully will be able to make some lovely cards!!!! last year i had spent a small fortune on some of the pens and was not satisfied with the results, well, 1st i was not using the right weight paper, needs to be 110# and the wrong ink and embossing power. on the wrong paper they bleed thru and the wrong ink will bleed too! who would have thunk it??? they make all of these things to go together, so you have to keep buying more stuff, more 'n more stuff. well now i am all situated, HA!
woke to pouring rain today and now the sun has come thru and it is quite pleasant out. We are having a girls night out dinner tonight after the rest of the day was spent packing and arranging things in the house. Going with Carol and her daughter's mother-in-law, Patti, who i really enjoy. So we should have a pleasant evening.
You all Take Care and God Bless

Here is sweet little Guthrie, 'we' watched her after pre-school today.
And my latest endeavor, my puppy pillow!!!! saw the material at JoAn's and had to have it!! took forever to do the ruffle and all of that figuring inches is hard!!! Carol insisted i had to put in a picture of me sewing, so you knew that i really did it!!! HA!!!!
Supposed to have a storm tomorrow, overcast and black outside now, just sort of broody.
Take Care and God Bless

Look what i did today!! made some pillow covers out of Amy Butler fabric for the RV. the couch has no arms on it, it folds down for a bed, and there is just the back of the dinette and a wall to lean against, and it needed some arms and softness, on the left is the front and on the right is the back, thought they turned out fairly well. and they are colorful!!!.. Yesterday i made a little quilt top. but is a xmas gift and can't share that at this time :) so i am getting something done. wow!!! and we are going to start packing here any day now, movers coming next Monday, NOT tomorrow, but the next week.... had a little rain today and the weather has turned chilly, have my long jeans on, shorts and cropped pants are not working
Hope all is well .. take care and God Bless

Had a great day in Hannibal, MO. Went on trolley ride and saw all the sights, then went downtown and peeked into some stores, local quilt store, Hickory Sticks was GREAT, they are in the new Quilt Sampler, top ten shop hop!!!! We ate at LulaBelle's a bordello until the early 50's :) food was good!!!! the day was perfect in hotness and coolness, just ride hardly any humidity, and we had a hot tub last night!!!! Got to drive a little further along the big river, love doing that!
Then got home to more drama from the landlord from hell, they are video taping us going in and out, WHAT do they think we are doing anyway???? geez
All of you take care and God Bless
be good to your neighbors!!!!

Well, look what happened to my windshield today!!! Near Elderberry, MO hwy 61, it was a dump truck!!!! going about 100 miles an hour, there one minute, delivered the rock, then gone. and the crack is huge!!!! near the bottom right smack in the middle. but what can a person do? Guess i will be getting a new windshield as soon as i get home.
We are in Hannibel, MO, going to look at it tomorrow spend all the time we need, learn all about Mark Twain, then head on to home.
the Ozarks went on forever and were not exactly as i had envisioned, but it was neat to see what we did, there were lots of neat little towns, today Herman near the Missouri River was neat, german, has an October Fest and would be neat to go there for that, lots of Bed & Breakfasts.
Hope you all had a better day than i did :)
Take Care and God Bless
(at least the rock did not hit me in the head!)

Carol's Daily Pcks!

This was in Salem, Mo. What? those little tiny, cute birds? and how many do you have to kill, to eat all you can eat? Geez!!!!
Then there is a little ghost-like town called Slingo, about a mile off the road, but the church looked big and used regularly, grass mowed and what-all, and the Methodist church sign was on the gravel road pointing to the church, and when you go to church you end up in the furnance (of hell?) or you end up there if you don't go???
AND then 4 miles west of Cuba, Mo which was a big stop on route 66 and there were all kinds of murals in the town on the buildings, there was a little outpost and the largest rocking chair in the world, the girl at the counter in the store said that her uncle woke up one morning and said he had a dream and that he needed to have something outside the store to draw people to the store and decided that he was making a rocking chair, the wife was not too thrilled, but he and a friend made it out of steel and here it stands . it was pretty cool. there was a guy from Indiana and his wife and he was laying on the ground taking a pic so his wife looked bigger than the chair (as you can see it is really, really big, you can't get into it and carol looks really small) so anyway, carol had him take one of me too!!! so he kept laying there, in the gravel, while we showed him how to work my camera too! the pic turned out ok.. :)... Hope you are all well!

Cicada

I do just love to see things that are odd in America, that people put out. this i am sure is a cicada, those 'bugs' that chirp in the day and evening all over the mid-west and it was BIG like up to my waist, someone put in alot of time and effort to make this, then display it!!! and i appreciated it!!! don't know what the thing is supposed to be to the left of it tho, maybe a part of the shell? don't know.
we are spending the night in Jefferson City, MO, the capital of Missouri, and tomorrow heading for the OZARKS, south of here, the riverways trail and Mark Twain NF, there is a mtn there 1236 ft high!!! we shall see :) We were in Louisiana, Mo and Mexico, Mo and tomorrow will go to Cuba, we are really getting around, don't know the penchant for naming towns after other places...

So, thought i would show you more of Chicago!!! tall, tall buildings and then us on the SkyDeck of the Willis Tower at 103rd floor!!!! Definately a high point of this trip, you can see the streets thru our feet below us..
Today we went to the Renegade Fair which i did not really 'get' lots of alternative things and for younger kids, i did buy a couple things, but sort of had to stretch it to figure what would be a good thing to get, and you really need to LOVE something to want to get it, don't you? BUT that did not stop me, these are unique items and not something you can get everywhere, so that is ok, but lots of the stuff was too unique for me, and then it was a hot day again and i sweat and sweat, flowing into my eyes eve, got to meet a friend of Darah's tho and see here cut tiny apartment and use her bathroom, of thank heavens as there was nothng at the fair to use, except places set in the sun, that smelled vaguely of seage, oooohhhh, could not even bear to go near them, and the friend lived just right there by the fair, only a block away, so that was more than convenient and downright friendly of her to let us use the her convenience, thank you so!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tonight we are in Bloomington, Illinois, on the way to Columbia, Missouri. and the Ozarks, it is exciting to be on the road again and am in a wonderful Hampton Inn, LOVE their beds and down comforters.
Hope you all stay well and Happy!!!

Here we are in Chicago.. rode the blue line into downtown, had lunch at Bubba Gumps, really good shrimp. Took a trolley ride around downtown, 2 1/2 hours on the upper outdoor deck, it was such a nice day, but had gotten a 'little' overheated while going up and down the stairs of the el, back and forth. took a taxi to the 'Willis Tower' formerly the Sears Tower to go out onto the
SkyDeck, and yes, i did, walk out onto it and looked down 103 stories past my tennis shoes thru the glass, it was really rather terrifying, but got a pic of our feet and the street below!!! then had a deep dish pizza at a little place neat the tower, it was good, but rather 'doughy', another taxi back to the blue line, by this time it was getting late and we wanted to be home and were all fairly exhausted, back in our room by O'Hara airport by 10pm, cold showers for all and i think we are revived.. Tomorrow to the Renegade Fair, artist thingy, that will be fun to see then on the road thru Illinois to the Ozarks...
It was interesting seeing all the people, talked to some on the el ride and the cab drivers talked to Carol as we made her sit up front with them :) and everyone seemed pleasant, and did not feel threatened at all. but it is a REALLY big city and goes on forever and i think you would never tire of things to do here.
You all sleep well and have a good Sunday!!!

Driving to Chicago

Here i am driving to Chicago, in Illinois, note the flatness. just farms and corn to see is all there was, then went to a huge mall and of course had a little Cheesecake!!!!
and now we are in the hotel by the airport. going to go to the airport tomorrow and get the EL and go downtown and see what that is like. will habe pics of tall buildings and crowds, one would assume. Darah, Carol's daughter is with us and it is special to have her, and for her to have time to herself. It is jarring to be away from her little family.

Top is the neighbors to the left when you are looking at the house, HA! then her house, is it not cute???? and bottom is the little road/drive back into her house plus two others, it is like the alley. We are excited about getting her in there and planning where to put things and what to store down in the basement and up in the attic.
Today was a day of chores, go get more boxes, Walgrens for more meds, post office, out to dinner with "the family" at Dave's Famous BBQ, got like 10 # of tri tips, bbq'd for $10, we are going to be eating them forever, do they really think people will eat that much in ONE sitting???
Also want to make a comment on Guthries' outfit yesterday, the pink top was part of a sweater dress that she picked out for her 1st day of school, she wore the whole thing to bed and then was quite upset that she could not wear it the next day to school, again, she very sadly told me that we had to wash..... such sad things that little girls have to learn :)
Y'll take care.
My Aunt said they had some rain in San Antonio, Yea for them!!!!

This is Guthrie. Carol spent the last couple of days making this skirt for her. Isn't it cute??? Me? I watched her sew, watched TV and read, BUT I did not sweat!!! Great accomplishment for me. (those are her favorite shoes, wears them every day) Tomorrow we are having everyone over for dinner, just have to figure out what to fix, hmmmmmmm. Hope you all have such small decisions to make
Take Care and God Bless

A New House

Carol found a house!!!! It is a cool one, a carriage house on the back property of a huge mansion on River Drive, right by the Mississippi!!!! It is soooo cool, high on a hill tho, so would not get flooded. I think of things like that but people out here don't seem to. It had jack and jill bathroom to the two bedrooms, nice kitchen, long living room with huge window all along one portion of the wall and a deck out back with large trees all along it, hill for sledding, and the neighbors have a really big play structure that Guthrie can use!!!! washer and dryer outside in the basement, no access from the house, have to go out and around, which was a little concern, BUT the neatness of the whole place won over her. It is right near a bench that we used to go sit on last year and look at the river and watch sailboats and dream of the future and things we might do. So that was a happy coincidence. we were driving by checking out our bench and there was the 'for rent' sign, almost serendipity!!!!!
will send a picture when i can get one. now i don't have to worry about her anymore, or feel guilty about this whole thing.... :)

Still Looking

The hydrangeas are beautiful here, the white ones are turning all rosy colored! why is that? cooler weather? the chair in the window is a facsimile of the chair /window from "Psycho" where Anthony Perkins would sit in the chair by the window, eerily..... Carol was all excited to show me and i had to take i don't know how many pics of it, it was a neat house tho, other than this strange thing. Found no suitable houses today :) still looking. Went to look at 3 and they looked pretty rough and one was way too small, have an appointment Monday to see the inside of one, that was really cute, hope it is a good one.
Y'all Take Care and God Bless

Butter Burgers

Just your normal regular vacation like things going on. Helping with babysitting. Carol's, with whom i am staying, relationship with her landlord has deteriorated and she has to move, so she is looking for places and i will be helping her pack. She has to be out by the 4th of Oct!!!! BUT we are still going to Chicago and the Ozarks the end of next week, have our priorities all set, don't you think? Her landlord is definitely NOT like the usual, friendly mid-western people i have met on prior trips here, that is for sure!!!!! Drove to Iowa City today to get cheap, recycled boxes. All the college students were scurrying about. The skies were fair and the butter burgers at Culver's were great!!!! BUT we saw one man walking out who had one of those big butter burger beer bellies and decided we better not go there quite so often!!!!!! But OMG were they good!

Went to a grist Mill near muscatine, it was so cool! It was an original mill, restored, NOT recreated and it was truly beautiful, a work of art of the farmers and artisans in the early 1800's and it could still operate, they had it running the day i was there. it was very interesting to see and there were men there that were part of the restoration and upkeep and were more than willing to talk about it and the way it worked, got some great pics of it!!!
Also went to two parks along the Mississippi to look at rv parks for next year and they just had electricity, so would have to keep moving to get water and dump, so they would not work, but it would be sort of neat to be right beside the river. But later in the day went to Interstate RV which is by exit 292 and the Flying J Truck Stop and was up on the plain above Davenport, only 5 miles to Carol's house and it is perfect, not down in a shady hole like the one on rt 61 was (it was also old and sort of run-down, they did not even have cards and phone number for people!) and this one had everything and they were sooo nicee and welcoming, and did not care at all about Luci, said, "Well, yes, you can have a dog, you can't leave your baby home!" so that pretty much sold me, and drying your clothes is free and they have showers and laundry open 24 hours a day, sometimes i like doing my clothes when i can't sleep! and a pool and hot tub!!!
Yesterday we went for a walk with Guthrie and "amy" (her doll) it was so cute, she is so sweet with her baby and tender and takes care of her, we had a good walk, i took pics!!!