Last Post of the Grand Adventure!
Along with our las VLOG a few bonus items:
Next: If you want a run down of the plusses and challenges of the camps shoot me an e-mail and I will send it to you.
Finally -- our last VLOG:
Oh and thanks for joining us on the journey!
The Boomers!
VLOG and BLOG FROM BOOMER RAY!
There was an enthusiastic welcome in New Hampshire by Ray & Joanne's Son Dan, wife Catie and the grandkids. . . Ray and Joanne were over the moon of course! Chuck and I left them to the reunion and headed off to Chelmsford, MA to stay with good friends Steve and Deb for a bit. Glorious today: live church in Andover, brunch with S & D and off to view 5 potential houses. Returning to view one of them tomorrow as well as see a few others. Meanwhile, the rest of this blog post is from Boomer Ray followed by the Wisconsin VLOG:
"Morning
Jo and Chuck, kind of odd not having you two near me when I say that. And I
hope you slept well last night.
Anyway,
what I wanted to share with you was an emotion I experienced last night. It was
later in the evening when I remembered my meds were still in the trailer. So I
got "the keys" and did the ritual opening of the door; move the grab
bar, insert the key and turn to the right and I'm in. Next, of course was
moving the bump out enough to access the bunk beds, our sleeping quarters for a
month. It was then that a wave of nostalgia hit me. The floor, the table, the
fridge. All those visuals had a distinct feeling of being home. Then the voices
of my grandchildren rang out and the feeling quickly faded.
Then there was this morning making coffee. Though the end result was the same, a great cup of joe, it took quite a bit longer to get there, heating the hot water took twice as long as well as the pour through. But afterwards came my most pleasant reward, sitting on my porch with my coffee listening to the sound of local Pileated woodpecker. This and the comfort of my own bed, it's nice to be home.
We
will be praying you house search goes quickly so you too can have that feeling
of home.
Blessings, Ray
and Joanne
Physically Arrived!!
We spent our first night since Montana out of the trailer! Ray and Joanne were warmly . . . that is an understatement. . .greeted by their son Dan, his wife Catie, and their three beautiful grandchildren: Joey, James and Gracie. We unloaded the trailer into the two vehicles and headed to Steve and Deb Weibley in Chelmsford. Looking forward to church and then house hunting --- meeting our realtor to see house possibility #1 at 2:30.
Meanwhile the VLOGS will now actually upload in under 5 hours. So here is a little ditty of the more unusual of our experiences.
Last Nights and Badlands VLOG
Tonight we spend our last night in the RV – for this trip
anyway. We are in Upstate New York. We rolled in last night set up and spent a
quiet day. A long leisurely walk around
a beautiful blue-green lake, then late lunch/early dinner at Dinosaur BBQ in
Syracuse! This place has some memories
for Chuck and I and we went there a few times years ago when it was the only
one of its kind . . . a hole-in-the-wall BBQ joint for bikers. Now there are multiple establishments with
that name and the seating has overflowed to outside. We will have one last camp fire tonight, relax
maybe reminisce about our long cross-country journey and head to New Hampshire
tomorrow.
I will continue to post the next four or so VLOGS as I get them completed
and hopefully will have the bandwidth wherever we are to upload with relative
ease!
TWO NEW VLOGS:
If I work after midnight I can actually upload. . .
Two up from South Dakota:
and
The First Faces of South Dakota
A video of Crazy Horse Monument and the Badlands to follow.
Moving Fast, Close to the End--- And Some Other Good News
While the internet stays
uncooperative for uploads. . . this KOA is blocking any up or down-loads. . . a
quick note to say, we are now in McKean, PA.
We left our special time in Madison and moved on to Shipshewana, Indiana
for one night. Getting past Chicago was
a wonderful white-knuckle experience. We
switched it up a bit and I rode in the truck, with Ray and Joanne with Chuck in the
Prius. Ray is unique in his approach to large
Semi trucks. You will enjoy his
philosophy on the VLOG that will be forthcoming one of these days. . . at this rate it may be by the time we have the new house! To that end, we actually plan to meet with our realtor to possibly see some things this Sunday late afternoon.
Meanwhile Chuck and I are
taking this bully pulpit to share something exciting about Lark. For those who do not know, she was asked to be part of an
especially important team at work where a new “Proton” Unit for cancer treatment has been created. It was officially opened today and there was
a lot of press and TV coverage. The video
link here shows the full video that the aired clips were taken from. Lark is the beautiful woman in the blue dress.
Yes, we are proud of her!!
Minnesota and Madison
After we weathered Betts --the campground
from Hades, I have concluded we’ll have to do a Boomer rating scale of RV sites
when the trip is done. The dramatic South
Dakota topography gave way to wide open, flat Minnesota terrain. Gluttons for tourist punishment, we gamely
decided to visit the “Corn Palace.” (Unbelievably,
more than one person suggested this was a “must-see” thing). Since we really didn’t stay for the show, or
read too much on the history, we have no idea what possessed people to corncob
a building and make giant cob wall murals.
Ray and Chuck ‘popped’ (sorry) away
as fast as they could. Joanne and I bought
popcorn, lemonade ice and got back on the road.
Around 4, GPS dumped us onto a
farm in the middle of nowhere. There was
not an RV in site??! Out comes a man in
stereotypic coveralls. While Chuck is scrambling between all of us to
pull together the ‘cash’ since ‘no credit cards,’ Farmer Brian, looks over at
Joanne with a knowing smile.
“Bet yer wondering where the heck
the RV park is?” We nod. “Everyone does.” He points off in the distance, “It’s down there,
it’s really nice. Trust me.”
He hops on a small farm vehicle telling
us to follow him. As we wind down the
dirt road into the woods, we’re not so sure.
Then, we arrive at probably one of the most peaceful RV places yet. There are also very few RV’s there; it is
supremely quiet and restful. There is
also only one dump site for the RV, one bathroom and one shower each for men
and women. But hey, it was only for one
night, right?
Farmer Brian farms corn and
soybeans. He started the RV park and
poured about $140K into making it work.
They just started making a profit on it a few years ago. Right now, he’s hoping for rain. . . no
irrigation. He is bemoaning new inheritance
laws that will make it difficult to turn the spread over to his sons. He took the time to show us a hawk nest. He wished us well.
Mitchell is next to Austin which
is home to the…wait for it…… SPAM museum.
Chuck and I took a brief side trip there. . . very enjoyable and
informative. A great museum; well done. Who knows how SPAM got its name (NO LOOKING
IT UP)? We met up with Ray and Joanne
for lunch and rolled on to Badgerland Campground outside of Madison, Wisconsin.
This site has no “off the grass
rules” – they seem to drive all over it, but lots of water rules, one dump
site, and quarters are needed for the showers.
Ray was in the middle of his ‘three-quarter-maximum-allowed-nine minute- shower’
when the lights went out—and him dripping wet without a headlamp. Later, Chuck, back from another midnight run,
put his quarters in and no water came out.
Sigh.
Today our day was bright with sun and enjoyment – we were with Chuck’s brother Don and his wife Sheila. They made us wonderful breakfast, then we all walked around the botanical gardens, followed by some of the best ice cream ever at a local place: Michaels. Back to their apartment for silly talk, fun, laughter and Sheila’s to-die-for Moroccan chicken.
We are wonderfully full of food, and the blessed
afterglow of friendship, laughter and loving family.
