Kentucky Renovation

     We finally hit the road, albeit via a different route than intended. We took the southern I-10/I-12 eastbound to Hammond, LA then northwards towards Jackson, MS. While trying to leave Jackson, there was some incident on I-55 that halted all movement northbound. So, there we sat. All lanes of traffic sitting at a dead standstill! The first time I ever sat long enough that I shut off the engine of the motorhome and took a quick nap. After about an hour we continued. We stopped at a little campground in Cave City, KY. This was a nice little park near Mammoth Cave National Park. Didn't stay long enough to unhook, just enough time to rest, so no pictures. We headed onwards the next day and arrived at our home for May, Elkhorn Campground in Frankfort, KY (more about this CG later)

     One of the primary purposes of this trip was to help our son, Shawn, to make some improvements and renovations on his Chiropractic office in Richmond, KY. We arrived on Thursday and took stock of the situation. Brandon, a good friend of Shawn's, had come in from Kansas City to help us out some. Besides the extra set of hands, he brought several power tools that we would need to make the improvements. We planned out what we intended to do and made a shopping list for the hardware store. A running bet was made as to the number of trips to Lowe's that it would take to complete this project. (I lost count but I know that we exceeded even the highest estimate!!)

Lobby and Waiting Room Before

     It was an aggressive list of improvements that we decided to take on. First and foremost, we were to move the reception area from inside the waiting room to a separate room of its own. In doing so, we needed to cut a window into the wall and make a new check in area. We added some new lighting in the office and rebuilt the desk for Tosha, Shawn's Chiropractic Assistant (CA). We also had to move some electric, telephone, and cable lines from the waiting room back to the new office area. We renovated the entry door to Tosha's new office and made it a half door. We also made a chart window where patient charts could be passed back and forth between Doctor and CA. We fixed a few outlet boxes that were loose and repaired a few lights. We replaced the old blinds in the front widows with newer, more attractive and efficient blinds. We also improved the insulation around the front windows. The last big piece was putting a door in the hallway to separate the waiting room from the treatment rooms. This required a small wall be built and the door framed, hung, and the whole thing drywalled, painted and trimmed out. We then decided to re-purpose part of the old check-in desktop and made it into a shelf in the treatment room.  All of this needed to be done with as little interruption to patient care as possible! Oh, and we did come to Kentucky to tour some, so we took some time to do that when we could. I'm tired just reading about it!!!

Welcome window (office side) is cut. New light being installed

Welcome window (waiting room side). Now you see it...

...Now you don't!

Window is roughed in

Blinds being installed

One side done

Hall door roughed in

Drywall being hung

Door installed, drywall being finished

Finished views. Waiting room side

Kids Corner 

Treatment side- New door, half door, chart window

Repurposed shelf in the treatment room

Ready to go but......

     Well, we are all packed up and ready to go but Mother Nature is throwing a monkey wrench into things. With Spring comes storms in America's Heartland and this Spring is no exception. All along our intended route is severe weather (high winds, heavy rain, possibility of hail and tornadoes). So, we have always said that the advantage of being so mobile is the ability to come and go as you please. In this case we have decided to stay put for a couple of days and wait it out. The down side is finding new campsites on short notice. Used to be easy but over the last few years, spontaneous travel changes don't always result in finding accompanying campsites. We're now in the process of making those changes and will try it again next week.

Time to Pack Up and Hit the Road

     Well, it's that time of year in southeast Texas where the Snowbird migration is in full swing. The weather folks are predicting 90 degrees by Friday! So far it has been an early Spring. The grass has been being cut since April, the flowers have been out and blooming, and the various "seasons" of Texas bugs has come and gone (ladybugs, wasps, forest webworms, and love bugs). Usually the Magnolia trees are just beginning to bloom when we are packing up but this year they have been shooting out their fragrant blooms for weeks. (photo above) Every morning I have wandered out and found a bloom to inhale. The fragrance is light but very pleasant.

     With the addition of the golf cart, we were looking at covering it for the brutal Texas summer. The more we thought about it, the more we felt we needed something more substantial to protect our investment. With that in mind, we decided to upgrade our storage shed. We made a deal with our neighbor and we traded our shed to him in exchange for one of his deck boxes. This then freed up space for a larger more substantial shed. We shopped around and found a nice lofted barn style that could accommodate the golf cart yet still allow plenty of room to store the things we needed to. This building was custom made by Cook buildings and delivered (and set up) on our site. It arrived on the back of a flatbed trailer and was lowered to the ground. The delivery driver unloaded a "mule" which was a fancy mini-fork lift. He used the mule to then drag and align the shed in it's new location.

Off loading from the trailer 

Using the "Mule" to move into position

Big double doors for golf cart access

In place and set up

A perfect fit with room to spare!

     Prior to this, we had to empty the old shed and move it to our neighbors property. I really didn't want to disassemble it then re-assemble it again. I felt that it was sturdy enough that we could easily get it to its new home by setting up some PVC pipe and rolling it to its new home. I asked our property manager if I could borrow a few moments of time from his crew to make the move. Well, they showed up and just carried it to the new location!! I didn't think that it was that sturdy but it all worked out fine.

Moving the old shed

      Our next home improvement took me a bit out of my comfort zone. We have had moisture condensation along the inner peak of our Casita roof for some time. It just gets too hot and humid around here and the ventilation is poor along the roof. We have seen what is called a ridge vent in homes and buildings in this area and it seemed to be a good solution for our problem. It looked like an easy fix that could be done by a "do it yourself-er". After studying a few You Tube videos, we found a couple of four foot vents and some shingles to match the roof.

   

      The process involved climbing up on the roof and cutting the appropriate sized slot into the ridgeline (thus providing the attic air a place to exhaust). Then the vents were nailed down and the shingles secured to the top. Now the air could vent and the moisture had some place to go other than down the interior roof of the Casita! The ridge vent itself is neat, fits well along the roof line and is barely noticeable.

The finished product.

     We are now ready to pack up and head northwards. Keeping in mind the floods of last year, we have taken as many precautions as we can to reduce any damage should the floods decide to recur. 

Early 2017

     Just a quick "catch up" on things we've been doing since returning from the Cruise. Spring came early to Texas and with the warmer weather we worked to spruce up the outside of the property. With the improvements going on at The Preserve of Texas, we find ourselves meandering around a lot more. In light of that, we decided to invest in a small golf cart to use in and around the property. We found this nice used vehicle that seats four, or the back seat folds down and there is a little space to haul things. It is raised a bit which allows us to "navigate off road" (as our GPS is fond of saying) without getting stuck. The grandkids came down over spring break and they had a great time riding around on it on trips to the playground, fishing dock, and beach area.

     At the end of February, we made a trip to Phoenix, AZ to attend the wedding of our niece. While there, my brother-in-law Bob and I attended a spring season baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and the California Angels. We had great seats and it was the first time I have ever attended a pro baseball event. My thanks to Bob for setting this up!

Not a bad view from my seat!!

     Also while we were there we attended the Good Sam rally which was held at the Phoenix International Raceway. We checked out the vendors and all of the new trinkets and gizmos that any serious RVer can't live without. The Richard Petty racing experience was doing NASCAR driving opportunities on the track and we were able to get a peek. (I have driven previously at the Kansas Speedway).

At PIR 

     One of the things that Barb has been busy with during the winter months is making gifts with her Scan-N-Cut machine. This machine can cut paper or vinyl to make things such as cards, scrapbooking highlights, T-shirt decorations, etc. We found a store in Conroe, TX (not far from us) that sells the vinyl sheets and Barb made many of our Christmas gifts, T-shirts for the guys on the Cruise, and decorated insulated mugs for a whole bunch of folks. She made a nice wall hanging tile for our niece as a wedding gift.

Tile for the new Bride and Groom

Rtic cup for our Daughter, Amanda

T-shirts for the Guys on the Cruise

     We have been planning our summer and decided to head back to the upper midwest. Since last summer's trip was interrupted by the floods in Texas, we wanted to go back and see things we missed or didn't have time for. In the process, we stumbled on to a neat workamping position in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. Baileys Harbor is on the eastern side of the Door County peninsula just minutes from Lake Michigan. We were given an offer we couldn't refuse so we accepted and will head there at the end of May and stay through mid-September. The park is called Beantown Campground and offers Tent, pop-up, and RV sites along with camping cabins. Here is a link to their website: Beantown Campground

Bean Town Campground

     So now we have returned the grandkids to Kansas following spring break and will return to Texas to get ready for our next trip: spending the month of May in Kentucky visiting with our son and doing some remodeling of his Chiropractic offices.

January Starts with a Surprise!

     January started with quite an event. Shawn's former roommate was turning 30 and wanted to do something special. He decided that a cruise was in order. He invited Shawn and some of their mutual friends to go along. We were invited also. Others heard about the cruise and wanted to be a part of it and in no time, a little over 20 folks had signed up! So we all converged from various locations to Jacksonville, FL.

     The cruise ship was one of the smaller Carnival ships and it sailed to Freeport, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau. All in the Bahamas. Things started out COLD as a big cold front enveloped most of the country and stretched deep into Florida.

     Amanda, Charly, and the girls set up in their cabin and by the looks of things packed only shoes. Anyway, in Freeport we braved the temperatures and went ocean Kayaking. Our original destination was unavailable due to winds and choppy seas but we did go to a nice area where the mangroves abounded as did the pelicans.

     We did get in to snorkel a bit but the waters were so cold that we had seen enough after about an hour. We don't look very cold in the picture below but believe me, it was chilly!

From L to R- KC, Shawn, Tyler, and Brandon

     Barb surprised the "Birthday Boys" with some shirts she had made and made a couple for Shawn and KC to round out the crew. 

     Carnival's private island, Half Moon Cay, was the next destination. This was an important stop as Shawn had a surprise for his girlfriend Shelby. It all started with the entire group getting together for a group photo on the beach...

     After the photo, the group sort of meandered about and Shawn and Shelby snuggled a bit...

     Then Brad slipped him a small something and...

     

     A totally surprised Shelby was caught completely unaware. We didn't hear all that was said but...

     We're pretty sure the answer was "Yes!". 

     Not to be left out, Shelby received a special shirt for the occasion...

     Amazingly to all involved, everyone had managed to keep this secret for the last few months while the plans were made and the ring carefully hidden away from discovery (sounds like the plot to Lord of the Rings). Anyway, welcome to the family Shelby!!!

     Formal night on the ship let us all dress up and enjoy the evening's activities. 

The guys...

and the Girls.

     The last port of call was Nassau. We took Amanda and her family along with our frequent travel buddies Geoff and Brenda on a walking tour of the city. 

The Queen's Staircase

Our ship as viewed from the Fort

Now where did I put that key????

     We returned to Jacksonville to much warmer weather than when we left. Here the parties parted ways, all headed back to their homes. A couple days' drive returned us to Kansas and we began our preparations to return to Texas. We did delay a week in order to be around when the girls get their delayed Christmas gift... a new puppy!

2016 Comes to an End

     Well, it has been an interesting year to say the least. We started off the year by helping Shawn move to his new home in Kentucky. After arriving just before the blizzard dropped a foot of snow, we stayed around and helped him settle in to his new digs.

     Then in February we took a quick trip to Belize and went "primitive" for a week on an island off the coast with our friends Geoff and Brenda.

     We also took a quick return trip to Kentucky to check up on how Shawn was settling in. We augmented our trip by touring a few of the Bourbon distilleries the area has to offer.

     March saw us returning to Texas and getting ready for summer travels. We cleaned up after some minor flooding and got the motorhome spruced up and ready for travel.

     Our summer touring took us through the midwestern states of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan. In June we met up with extended family in the Wisconsin Dells and enjoyed a great reunion. Unfortunately our summer took a decidedly disastrous turn. Late May through early June the rains fell in Texas and our place was submerged. We made the decision to cut our summer plans short and return to assess the damage and determine how best to recover.

     By the time we arrived, the waters had receded. In all it appears that we had about 6-8" of water standing in all of the buildings. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, we were not well prepared for this event and most everything that sat on the floor was damaged beyond repair. We rolled up our sleeves and worked through the Houston summer (don't EVER want to do that again!!) to return our place to its former glory. By the end of August, we were back in business and, in my humble opinion, were better than original.

     September and October saw us heading back to Kentucky to cool off and see how Shawn was doing in his Chiropractic practice. We found a campground that was well out of the way but we enjoyed our stay. Travels to sights in the area culminated in a trip to Mammoth Cave.

     From there we headed to Red Bay, AL to get some minor work done on our motorhome. Oil change and lubrication along with the replacement of a shift motor in the transmission put us back in shape and ready to continue our travels. Always a little unnerving to see your 30,000+ lb motorhome on jacks standing four feet off the ground!

     From Red Bay we returned to Texas and spent a quiet Thanksgiving holiday enjoying our place. In early December, the new management at The Preserve shot a commercial to be shown on local television beginning sometime in 2017. We were asked if they could use our place for some location shots and we were actually included in the filming! This was our first and only introduction to professional filmmaking and it was an interesting and unique experience. Mid-December we prepped our motorhome for a long winter's nap and left it in Texas while we drove up to Kansas to visit with friends and family for the Christmas Holidays.

     So another year has passed and we are looking forward to what 2017 has to offer. We have decided that, since our plans this summer were unfortunately cut short, we would pick up where we left off and continue our upper Midwest touring for the summer of 2017. Planning is already in the works.