Storms, Rain and more Rain; Finally Sunshine!!!!

We stayed in Illinois an extra day because of the terrible thunderstorms. Had quite a scare Tuesday evening while returning to the Beever farm from a shopping trip in Champaign with my daughter and granddaughter. There are two options to get to their farm, both of which involve narrow gravel roads with low spots that flood. We did drive through some minor flooding on the road we took. About a mile from their house, in POURING rain, lightning struck in the field about 500 feet from the road. We saw flames as the lightning hit the ground. Even with all the water on the ground. It was quite a sight.

Needless to say, we sure were glad to get in the house. Dan and our grandsons were standing in the garage as we pulled up. We sure were happy to see them. :)

There was so much rain and standing water that Dan was a little concerned about the roads being soft due to all the rain, but we had no trouble with the motorhome when we left yesterday. Drove through about 6 inches of water in one place before we got on the blacktop road.

We are now parked at Sarah and Chad's out in the country (love the country) at Sugar Grove, OH. Sugar Grove is in the southeast part of Ohio with beautiful rolling hills and lots of timber. Deer walk across the backyard every morning. AND, the sun is shining.

All five of our children are here along with their families. They've come from Seattle, Texas, Illinois and Boston. Our six grandchildren range in ages from 19 down to 1 1/2. Plus there are two dogs and one cat to add to the mix. And Sarah and Chad will be celebrating their wedding on Saturday and adding two step-grandchildren to our family.

We celebrated Jennifer's 40th birthday last night with the usual hoopla from her 4 siblings. This tradition started when Tim turned 40 and has continued to grow with great gusto as each one has reached that milestone.

Lots happening this week. Not sure how much time I'll have to post this week, but will get some pictures up soon.

Thanks to all of you who commented about our blog. Looks like we'll be meeting several of you in Branson.

More later.....

We ARE on Our Way !!!!!!!!!!!!

We left Rochester at 10:15 this morning on our first day of fulltime RVing. Hip, Hip, Hooray!!!!!

No, the house isn't sold, but it sure was nice to pull away from it. We built this house in 1977 and raised our family in it. Tim was a freshman in high school and Sarah was a baby. This is the house all our kids left from as they ventured out into the world. There are lots of memories in this house, but nothing to hold us to it any longer. As many of you have heard us say many times, "Our kids live in five different states from Washington to Massachusetts, including Illinois, Ohio and (soon to be) Colorado."

We are so looking forward to being able to spend time with each of them and their families as we travel, and take a grandchild with us once in awhile. Erin will be with us this summer.

So we begin our journey enjoying the freedom of traveling the open road, taking our home with us.

We still have some work to do on the house before putting it up for sale, and will get that done this fall.

Thanks to all of you who read our blog. Be sure to leave your comments.

More later...............

Just About Ready to Go!!!!

Just eleven days until we pick up Erin and start our summer/fall adventure. WooHoo!!! We decided to stay in the house until sometime next week. Might as well use the house water and sewer instead of filling up the tanks in the motorhome. Plus, it's really been easier to organize in the MH. I've had just about everything out of the cabinets and closet and re-sorted, rearranged and labeled. Dan cleaned the basement storage areas and rearranged those also. Looks like we'll actually have some extra space even after he includes tools and a small air compressor.

He made some dividers for the cabinets so canned food and such will stay better organized while traveling. Just normal accelerating and braking can really mess up the cans. Our MH has such a smooth ride that very few things shift around during travel, but I hadn't found a way to keep the cans from sliding around. That rubberized shelf liner just gets wrinkled up. I do put the coffee pot in the sink and the toaster oven and 2 or 3 other items in a basket on the floor while traveling.

Dan sold the dump truck to the Village of Rochester last week, so the only work vehicles left are the Kioti tractor and the old 1983 Dodge Van (otherwise known as the Brogdon Bus). Gretchen drove the Brogdon Bus in high school and had several "adventures" with it; but I won't elaborate on those here.

Dan has purchased a bike rack for the back of the truck so the bikes won't have to lay in the bed of the truck. Three bikes will fit on it. Really nice!! And he began moving some of the tools into the front garage in preparation for a sale when we get back to Rochester in the fall. He had already sorted everything, but things were really crowded in the back garage and it wouldn't be very easy to display everything.

I just need to move food from the freezer and fridge and all the food will be in the MH. Sorting through the spice cabinet was quite interesting. I found 3 jars of chili powder and 3 cans of cocoa and numerous spices that I'm not sure how old they were. If I couldn't smell them when I opened them; they were history!! And I'm not sure why I even bought some of them. I bought some new spices and they now have a "date of purchase" marked on them.

We still need to go through a few clothes and decide what do to with them, but we are really close to being ready to leave. Monday I'll start calling to stop the paper, cable TV, trash pickup and all that stuff. A friend will be picking up our mail at the post office twice a month and sending it to us. We have switched everything to online bills and payments except for one insurance statement, so we don't have much mail. And our neighbor is going to mow our yard.

I didn't start out to write so much, but since this blog is also a diary of sorts, I guess I can write whatever I want to. :) We will be back in the fall to finish working on the house to put it on the market. Some might ask why we don't get that done now and then travel, but without going into detail; we have decided this is best for us.

So June 2 it's off to Ohio for Sarah and Chad's wedding, then to Branson, MO for the RV-Dreams rally; Burdett, KS to visit friends; Denver to visit Jean (Gail's sister) and Steve; Carbondale, CO to visit Tim, Karen, Elijah and Isaac in their NEW home; and then on to Seattle for Lucy's birthday. And we'll be stopping along the way to enjoy this wonderful country and all the beautiful sites and scenery, and posting pictures.

AND, we're so happy to have Miss Erin traveling with us.

More later........

No, We Aren't Traveling Yet

I didn't realize how long ago I posted, so thought I should bring this blog up-to-date.

We returned home from the race on April 29th. Had a wonderful time in Alabama even though our drivers didn't do well at the racetrack.

We've been busy continuing to work on the house. Sarah and Chad were back this past weekend so Sarah could check out the alterations on her wedding dress. It looked great, except for the hooks for the bustle, soooooo, those are being changed; and I'll pick it up on Saturday. She wanted to take it with her, but we'll be taking it to Ohio.

Sarah did load up their car with some more stuff, so our inventory keeps dwindling. And we hauled more stuff to Stephanie this week. We hope to get the living room furniture off to Goodwill this week along with another trunk load of stuff. Then just have the kitchen cabinets and some other miscellaneous to deal with. I've downsized the kitchen once already, so shouldn't take long to finish it.

We plan to start living in the motorhome this weekend. :) Sure am getting tired of not knowing where things are. Of course, it will take awhile to remember where we've put things in the motorhome, since I keep rearranging the cabinets.

And Dan has sold some more equipment, so things are progressing.

Not sure when I'll post again. My laptop is in the shop, but I should have it back in a day or two. I'm posting from the Rochester Library today.

Can't wait to start this fulltiming.