Musings on Our Lifestyle and Back in Illinois

We arrived back in Rochester on Friday, Oct. 16. It is really interesting to see how some things have stayed the same and others have changed after having been gone for several months. There was extensive road work being down on East Lake Drive, the main road we take to get to Springfield, when we left in June. Most of the time the road was one lane during the road work. It was heavily traveled, thus the need to widen it; but it seemed like it was taking forever to finish the work. The work is all completed, with turn lanes, a traffic signal, new grass on either side and one of the smoothest surfaces we've ever seen. And a hike and bike trail. I hope the people who use it every day appreciate all the work that went into it.

Our neighborhood looks about the same. The house looks just like it did when we left (in need of getting the remodeling done). Our neighbor has kept the yard mowed and checked inside occasionally. After getting the motorhome parked and hooked up (we have 50amp and water on one end of the house and access to a sewer drain in the basement to dump the tanks via our macerator pump, we talked a little about our emotions and feelings of coming back to this house. We concluded that we really don't have any feeling one way or another, except the need to get this remodeling done so we can turn the key over to the realtor!! We raised our family in this house. Dan built the house the spring of 1978 after Sarah was born, and all our children graduated from the Rochester Schools. We have LOTS of memories of kids over to visit, birthday parties with grandparents included, Easter egg hunts in the back yard, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners around our big Amish built dining room table (with card tables added as a daughter-in-law and sons-in-law were added, and then grandchildren). Other memories of each child learning to drive, working at the local grocery store, library and restaurant and then leaving for college or the military, or just to "find themselves". At one time both parents and two children were all in college at the same time. Dan built a house for my parents just one block away so they could be closer to us as they were becoming less independent.

But time marches on and children establish their own homes in 5 different states, our parents do not live forever and our own needs and wants change. I'm not sure our needs and wants change as much as our sense that we now have the freedom and abilities to pursue some of our dreams which may have been put on the back burner. We neither one have a sense of "coming home" to this house.

We so enjoyed our three months in Seattle. Dash Point State Park is actually located on Puget Sound in Federal Way, just south of Seattle; about 25 miles from Gretchen's house. We were maintenance volunteers at the park. Our campsite certainly didn't have the "it" factor as we were parked across from the office and maintenance buildings. But we did have a nice big grassy yard and met and worked with a fabulous group of park rangers and park staff. And we were able to set our own hours independent of the campground hosts, so we could come and go as we pleased. This was especially helpful as Gretchen needed quite a bit of help after Edie was born. Our previous visits to Seattle with the motorhome we had parked in Gretchen and Rodney's back yard in West Seattle, and that was beginning to feel like "home." I'm sure if we volunteer at Dash Point again, we'll feel right at home.

Here are some pictures of our site at Dash Point.


This is the entrance sign on the beach side of the park. Our site was about 400 ft to the right of this sign.

The entrance booth to the beach and day use area looking toward out campsite.  This was my work station on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons as I passed out trail maps, answered questions, gave directions, and reminded visitors of the donation box.  Dash Point SP is supported by the state, but all donations are used for improvements and projects at the park that are not covered in the regular budget.  The 400 acre park is located within the city of Federal Way, and is heavily used by the local neighborhood families. 

Our motorhome is visible in the background.  You can see, I didn't have far to walk to work, and Dan just walked across the street to the maintenance area where he repaired and revamped all the old wooden picnic tables.  He recycled the usable wood and bolts and used other recycled wood that was leftover from other projects. 

Lucy and Grandpa blowing bubbles in our

yard next to the motorhome.

Just relaxing.  Notice Grandpa and Lucy's legs.  The office is in the background just across the street from our campsite.
 

This is Edie and her mom.  Edie was asleep in the motorhome when the other pictures were taken.

As I said before, we felt right at home at Dash Point and look forward to returning in the future.  And we get to see spend more time with our granddaughters and their mom and dad also.

We left Seatle and headed toward Colorado to visit our grandsons in Carbondale, CO.  How about this scene as we approach Redstone Campground in the White River National Forest just 13 miles south of Carbondale?  That's Mt Sopris.  It never fails to invoke a sense of awe in me.  Mt. Sopris is on the northern edge of the Elk Range and its twin summits are 12, 935 ft tall.  It sits at the confluence of the Crystal River and Roaring Fork River, both noted for their trout fishing.  The Crystal River flows right by Redstone Campground.

One of our favorite campsites at Redstone Campground.  And since it is a National Forest Campground we're able to use our Federal Senior Discount Pass and cut the fee by 1/2.  There is a $5/day charge for electricity which is not discounted. 

We really do feel like we've come home when we pull into Redstone. 

And here are Isaac and Elijah

So, even though we no longer live in a "sticks & brick", and we hope to be rid of it very soon; we make each place we stay our home.  Some are more special than others, but we feel very comfortable in our home on wheels.  We have everything we need with us and have found that we just don't have the "wants" that we used to.  Our biggest "want" is that our kids didn't live so far apart (diesel fuel isn't inexpensive), but I can't think of a better way to see this wonderful country, meet new people every day, and spend as much time as we want in various parts of the country. 

More about what we're doing this fall in a later post. 

Till the next time..........

Back to Denver

We left Redstone Monday morning at 9:10am, early for us. We (Gail) always say we'll be on the road by 9:30 and we usually leave about 10:00. Not sure what takes so long, because we typically spend about 25 minutes getting things put away and another 10 minutes getting the truck hooked up to tow. :) I think we spend too much time watching the Today show while eating breakfast. Anyway, we surprised ourselves this time. Had an uneventful drive to Denver. Stopped at a rest area for lunch, stopped for fuel and drove a whole 197 miles and arrived around 2:30. And we're in the same site that we stayed in in June. And our campground hosts remembered us from our June visit.

The weather is perfect. High 70's and low 80's and lots of sunshine. Right now we plan to leave here on Thursday morning. I spent today cleaning the inside of the motorhome. This campground has paved roads and concrete parking pads, so I thought I should get rid of some of dust we collected in Utah and western Colorado. Love staying in national forests and on BLM land (the price is right and the scenery is unbeatable), but the gravel and sand sure make for a dusty interior. Even the vertical surfaces had to wiped down. And I washed the throw rugs and some towels. We put three small rugs on the dash when we're parked because Kasey likes to lay on the dash and look out the front window. The rugs help control his shedding, so we don't have dog hair flying all over. He spends a lot of time outside and loves to watch the comings and goings in the campground. He really enjoys people coming over to pet him. And we do get lots of visitors because of him. He's a real part of our family; even if he does shed enough for a whole kennel of dogs. :)

We're going to dinner with Jean and Steve tonight, so better get this posted before they get here.

More later.......

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Utah and Colorful Colorado

We left Idaho on Sep 10 and stayed overnight at Yuba State Park at Scipio, Utah on our way to Colorado. We decided at the last minute to visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and planned to stay at Dead Horse Point State Park which is located right between the two national parks. Their campground was full so the ranger directed us to Horsethief Campground just outside the state park on BLM land. This park is in the high desert and was just fabulous. No water, we already had a full tank because the state park doesn't have water; but 30 amp electric. Here is a picture of our site at Horsethief CG.

And with being so far from any town, and no artificial lighting in the park, I was able to get some great sunset pictures from our site.



We spent one day exploring Canyonlands National Park from the "Island in the Sky" mesa at the north side and another at Arches NP. Both parks really require a lot more time, but we had tentatively told the kids we would arrive on Saturday.
Here are slideshows from both parks. The first two are from Arches NP and the last is Canyonlands. Place your mouse over the bottom of the picture to bring up the toolbar.





We did do some "off the main road" driving and walked several short trails. We will for sure be going back to spend more time at these two beautiful parks and will probably stay again at the BLM campground.

On Saturday morning we left the high desert of southeastern Utah and headed for Colorful Colorado and its tall mountains, mountain rivers and tall pine trees.
We arrived at Redstone Campground in the White River National Forest about 3:00 pm after a really easy drive. The campground is about 15 miles south of Carbondale, CO where Tim, Karen, Elijah and Isaac live. Tim is our oldest child and if you've been following our blog you know we were here in June/July to help them get moved into their new house. They moved from flat, hot, high humidity McKinney, Texas to mountains, rivers, fly fishing, low humidity Colorado. And they seem to have settled in real well.

Dan's brother, Larry and his wife Phyllis, arrived on Sunday and parked right across from us at Redstone.

Don't you just love that scenery?


Redstone is a National Forest Campground (managed by Thousand Trails), so our Golden Age Passport allows for 1/2 price camping. Regular price is $25 + $5 for electric. We pay $12.50 + $5 for electric. We use 2 small electric heaters at night rather than use the propane furnace. There is one non-hookup loop and 2 loops with electric and water. No dump station so we have to be sure we have empty waste tanks when we come in. They do have showers with solar heated water, so at this time of the year it is wise to take evening showers because the water really cools off overnight. :)

Tim and Karen were especially glad to have us visit again since Karen's boss had called her back to Memphis for 2 days. Karen works from home for Hilton. He wouldn't tell her the reason she needed to come back, but did say "it is all good." Dan took her to the Aspen airport Tuesday morning R 7:30 and she'll return Friday morning. Soooo, we are all waiting to hear from her tonight. Elijah started in a new preschool on Tuesday, so Grandpa and Grandma are spending the days with Isaac at home. Elijah's school is in El Jelbel, about 20 minutes from their house, and on the way to Basalt where Tim works. Elijah really likes his new school. He was missing going to school and having a routine to his days.
Meet Isaac and Elijah



We haven't been spending much time in the campground, but are looking forward to having the kids come out on Saturday for a weiner roast and s'mores. The boys should really enjoy that, especially since there are lots of chipmunks in the campground and they may get to see some deer. I bet their dad does some fishing in the Crystal River which flows right past the campground. :)

I think that just about gets this blog up to date again. As I've said before, we are really enjoying this lifestyle. Not sure where we'll end up after leaving here. Will check out the maps and see what tweaks our curiosity.

More later........

We've Been Sooooo Busy

We arrived at Redstone Campground in the White River Nat'l Forest south of Carbondale, CO on Friday, June 27 about 4:00pm after leaving Denver. Had to unhitch the truck about an hour out of Denver because the motorhome was overheating. Thought this problem had been resolved last year, but since we hadn't driven on steep grades until now we hadn't had any more problems with overheating. Sooooo, when we take the motorhome back to Elkhart, IN in October that will need to be looked at again. Otherwise, it was a great trip from Denver.

We have no cell phone service at the campground so I haven't posted on the blog for quite awhile. I do have excellent aircard service in Carbondale so can only get on the internet when we're in town. But we've been busy helping Tim and Karen so I've not taken the time to post to the blog until now. I'll just post a few comments and links to pictures we've taken of the beautiful scenery around here. The pictures should speak for themselves.

Tim, Karen, the boys and the moving truck arrived at their new house about the same time. The truck was just about empty when we got to the house, so we helped get the beds put together and tried to organize a few things. Last weekend was spent opening boxes and putting things away with the help of an 18 month old and 3 1/2 year old. But we accomplished a lot and the house actually looks pretty homey.

We have taken some rides into the mountains and taken many pictures. We sure are glad we have a 4-wheel drive vehicle so we can drive over some of the roads we've driven on.

I'll post the links to our Picasa Web Albums so you can see where we've been. Erin has also taken a lot of pictures and I'll include her pictures in the links.


We'll probably be leaving Colorado on Tuesday or Wednesday and I'll try to stay a little more up to date with posting.

So, more later.......