Meeting New Friends

We got home from Kingman on Sunday and have been busy ever since. We have several travel plans in the next 3 weeks.

Monday we headed to Olathe to have lunch with Paul & Mary...aka Boris & Natasha at the 54th Street Grill & Bar. What a great couple!!

We had a wonderful lunch and great conversation. Seems like we have known them forever. Before we knew it, over 2 hours had passed. Still, that doesn't seem like enough time for us. They will be back in this area over the holiday's and we plan to catch up with them again while they are in the area.

Tomorrow we head to the Lawrence KOA for the weekend of racing and will stay over until Wednesday since Mac has his appointment with the Vocal Chord Specialist on Tuesday.

We will be home one night and then head back to Kingman on the 8th for Jaden's Volleyball game and Ryan's football game. Friday we will head farther west to Plains, Ks to go to Britny's Homecoming as she is a Queen Candidate. "Good Luck Brit"!!!

Monday, Oct. 12th has us leaving and heading east, making our way to Branson for the Heartland Owner's Rally over the weekend. We will be in Branson from Oct 14th - Oct 18th. When we leave Branson we will head north and east of Springfield, Mo to the RV Express Campground in Marshfield, Mo to spend some time with relatives that were at mom's memorial and some that couldn't make it.

We will be back home approximately October 22nd and may be able to spend a few days with Rollie & Gina at a campground somewhere while they are staying in Kansas for the month of October.

My sister will be back at our house the end of the month to finish up some legal stuff of mom's and to take some things that we put into storage for her.

Whew...we will be busy the next few weeks.

Everyone have a great week!

Hugs to all!!!

Hail to the King!

We made it to Kingman on Friday about 3:30 and it was pouring down rain! We backed in to our spot and just sat in the truck for about an hour waiting for the rain to let up so that we could get out and get the RV set up and head over to Teri & Lynnie's.

Well, Lynnie & Teri showed up before it finished raining and Mac & Lynnie went ahead and got the Rv set up. Our site does not have the it factor but it is great to spend a few days while visiting the kids! Here is the view out of our back window this time.

They left about 4:45 to start getting reading to go to the Homecoming game and Mac & I did the same. We met them at their house and headed on to the High School.

Dana, Britny, Jaelynn and Dana's mom, Linda had been to Wichita to look for Britny a dress for her homecoming as she is a Homecoming Candidate also in two weeks. They decided to stop in Kingman and watch part of the game and see the Crowning Cermony.

Our grandson, Kyle was voted Homecoming King! We are so proud of this young man. He used to be a very quiet and shy boy that just wanted to play video games and now he has grown in to an outstanding young man!

The mothers walked the King Candidates and the Dad's walked the Queen candidates.

Here is Kyle with mom, Teri

King Kyle and Queen Tina

It was great to be able to be here to attend this event. If we had still been working this would not have been possible.

Saturday morning Mac & I went to the Meat Market so Mac could get some beef sticks that he likes.

Saturday, Teri and I went to Wichita to the craft stores for a few beading supplies that I needed. We also stopped at Sam's to get food for a cookout over at their house. We had steaks, potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, and cheesecake for desert. Yummy!

After dinner we just sat around visiting until quite late.

We will be heading back home Sunday to get ready for the races in Kansas City and a special luncheon date in Olathe on Monday with some RV-Dreamer friends, Paul & Mary.

Everyone have a great week!

Hugs to all!

Meeting New Friends

We just arrived back home after spending a delightful 3 hours with Gypsy in Chanute, Ks. We drove down their this evening and took her out to dinner and had a great dinner and lots of wonderful conversation! We took her to a yummy Mexican Restaruant where after only about 5 minutes felt like we had known each other forever. She is such an amazing woman! How many women do you know that would buy a truck & RV sight unseen and take off from New York to California by themselves! Not many I would guess. She is a great example for single women all over.

Gypsy, Mac & me at El Publito Mexican Restaruant

My meal..a Poblano Rellano dinner.

Mac and his fajitas

Marty...aka Gypsy

Me and Gypsy back at her motel

Mac and Gypsy at motel.

It was such a great evening meeting a new friend that we hope to spend a lot more time with.

 

We finally finished getting everything out of mom's apartment today and I will turn in her keys tomorrow. Hopefully now I can get some closure. It has been really hard going over there everyday sorting through all her things.

Tomorrow we head to Kingman, Ks for our grandson, Kyle's homecoming game. He is a homecoming candidate. good Luck Kyle!

And on Monday we get to meet another RV-Dreams couple, Paul & Mary...aka Boris & Natasha for lunch in Olathe at the 54th Street Grill & Bar! Can't wait!!

I promise I will try to do a better job of keeping up our blog from now on...

Hugs to all!

Happiness & Sorrows

***********In Memory of my Mother**********

As you all know we started off our first retirement trip to visit with our kids. We started at Kingman with Teri and her family and spent time at the boys' football scrimmages. Dinner with the kids and lots of visiting.

Next we were off to Plains, Ks to see Dana and her family. We got to see Britny's first volleyball duel of the season and they won! Yeah! Also while we were there Ashley had our first great-grandson, Caeden James. We had lots of fun with the kids, grandkids, and great grandkids.

From there we headed on to Amarillo, Tx to see Christie and Dusty. Mac's sister, Linda, and her daughter and grandsons were there for Labor Day weekend also. We had a great time.

Chris and I spent many hours visiting and shopping. Man she wore me out.

Everything about our first trip was going great until we received a call from our daughter, Jenni letting us know that they had rushed my mom to the hospital by ambulance. they were going to be transporting her to Olathe Medical Center and it didn't sound good. I waited until her doctor called me with an update after he saw her in Olathe and he told me that I should probably come home. I immediately got online and booked a flight to Kansas City from Amarillo with a connection at Denver. It was supposed to be a 3 hour flight that ended up taking me from 4:45 until 10:30pm when I landed in Kansas City. Two very good friends, LeAnn & Becca were at the airport waiting for me to take me to the hospital. Thank goodness for friends! They took me to the hospital and walked with me up to mom's room to make sure I made it alright. My sister was there with mom, so LeAnn and Becca took off.

Mac was to leave Friday morning from Amarillo pulling the fifth wheel home. He got stranded at the first toll-booth as you enter Kansas from Oklahoma and had to be towed in to a Ford dealership in Wichita and leave the 5th wheel and rent a car. He got to the hospital Friday night(Sat. morning) about 12:30am.

Without going into all the details, as most of our friends and family know, mom passed away about 6:30am on Sunday, September 13th.

My sister, Lyvonne, her daughter, Kendra, my daughter, Jenni, and I left Garnett on Tuesday and headed to Ulysses to plan a graveside service for mom. Chris & Dusty were there waiting for us.

It has been a long and stressful week since then. We had a graveside service in western Kansas on Thursday, 17th. I ended up with a Kidney Stone on Wednesday night and Mac rushed me to the ER to be given a shot of Morphine and some pain pills. Unfortunately, I was in so much pain and out of it from the pain medication that I missed the graveside service.

We would like to thank everyone that made the service and our stay in Ulysses a little bit easier for us. Mac's sister, Linda offered us the use of her home and furnished us with food on Wednesday.

We had planned a memorial service in Garnett on Saturday the 19th so that my brother and some of our other relatives could be there. The service was really nice and we got to see some of our relatives and my brother was able to attend this service. Friends supplied a lunch after the service and we are very thankful for that.

After the service Saturday and Sunday morning, my sister, Lyvonne and I spent time going through some of mom's things that needed taken care of before she had to go home.

So far this week has been spent clearing out mom's apartment. I am exhausted but it has to be finished by the 27th. As of today we are almost finished except for the large items that will go into storage for now.

Now on to brighter things. We will be meeting Gypsy, a RV-Dreamer friend, for dinner in Chanute on Thursday, and Paul & Mary, more Dreamer friends for lunch in Olathe on Monday. Can't wait to meet them in person and spend some time visiting.

This Friday we will head to Kingman for Kyle's Homecoming game. He is one of the Homecoming King candidates.

October 1st we are off to Kansas City for the NASCAR race weekend and will stay over until the 7th since Mac has his appointment on the 6th with the Vocal Chord Specialist.

October 9th we will be heading back to Plains, Ks for Britny's homecoming as she is a candidate for Homecoming Queen.

On the 13th we head to Branson for a Heartland Owner's Club rally and just to relax. We will leave there and stop at some family that lives near Springfield for a day or two.

Then we will be back home to work on the house...Whew, I'm tired already!

Hugs to all!!

Shopping, Visiting, BBQ & NASCAR

I have been really lax in keeping up this blog while on this first retirement journey. Sorry, we  have just been so busy...lol

Friday morning we got up and just took our time getting around since the kids were working and Mac's sister and family wouldn't be here until Friday evening.

Chris called and said that she was leaving work at noon and did I want to go shopping...Me, Shopping...lol. Well things didn't turn out quite as planned. She didn't get off until about 2:00 and got over here about 2:30. We were off and running. We had to make a stop at Hobby Lobby for some craft supplies and then stopped at Kirkland's looking for some things for Chris & Dusty's spare bedroom. I also found a couple of small things for the RV. After Kirkland's, we had to go back to Hobby Lobby..lol. We forgot a couple of things.

Dusty & Mac went and got their RV and brought it out to the RV Oasis Resort for the weekend so we would all be together. That will be great!

We got back to the RV about 7:00 and Mac's sister and family were just pulling in. Mac & Dusty helped Linda get their 5th wheel set up.

We spent some time visiting and decided we needed to go and get some dinner. We decided on Cheddar's and off we went. We checked in and were told it would be about a 10 minute wait so no big deal. They never called to seat us and we questioned them about it. They had seated several people in front of us. Of course there were 8 of us so we were ok....now after 45 minutes of waiting we were getting a little upset since they had just seated a party of 7 and we were still waiting. We questioned the lady again and the manager came up. He apologized and offered us free appetizers and that we would be seated in just a few minutes. OK, after another 20 minutes, I was getting very upset and I asked the manager if we were ever going to be seated as we had two small boys that really needed to be fed. We were all upset by this time and had decided to just leave and go somewhere else. The manager apologized again and I asked if they were ready to seat us or we were going to leave. Jan, our niece was getting upset because her sons needed to be fed and they just kept seating other people. To make a long story short, the manager finally seated us in an area that was closed and kept one of his best waitresses overtime to serve us...and gave all of us our meals FREE...not bad for waiting 1-1/2 hours to be seated and then having to order and wait for our food. The food was great and the waitress was excellent! We gave her a tip in the amount of what our meal would have cost us!

Our waitress, Heather...

Ok, now on to Saturday...more shopping for me and Chris! Off to Barnes & Noble for a few books, then to Target for some office stuff. We went to a store called Accents that had some really unique items. We also had to make another trip to Hobby Lobby for some other things we needed...lol

A stop at the grocery store and back to the RV to cook some steaks, chicken breasts, potatoes, and salad for dinner. It was great and the company was awesome!. We took several photos of us just goofing around.

Dusty taking a photo of me taking a photo of him..lol

 

Dusty got on top of their RV and I had to take a couple of shots of him catching the moon and one of him holding it up...It was fun having him pose for me to take these photos! That is the full moon in his hands

Sunday morning, we were up and on the go again. Chris needed to go to Walmart and I needed a couple of things. We also needed to stop at United Grocery Store for some fixings for the BBQ at the NASCAR party to be held in their garage Saturday evening. There was way too much food and the company was really fun! Too bad Stewart didn't win.  :-(

Christie

Linda and Christie

Linda and Jan

Dusty

We got back to the RV about 11:30pm and I uploaded the photos from my camera and here I am writing this blog...

Tomorrow Linda, Jan and the boys are headed back home and Mac and Dusty are gonna play golf. And, you guessed it, Chris & I are going shopping. LOL. I need to find me a good pair of athletic shoes to walk in.

Stay tuned for what happens in the next few days here in Amarillo!!

Hugs to everyone!

Travel Day to Amarillo

Thursday morning we were up early to get the RV ready for travel again. Today all went as planned and we were on the road to Amarillo about 10:45am.

We made it to Dumas about 2:00 to have the RV and Truck inspected so we could get our stickers. That went just fine. Next stop, the Driver's License office for Mac to get his Texas License. Uh Oh...Mac had everything he needed to get his license until they looked at his Social Security card. One of the numbers had worn off. That will not work she told him...but we can go to the SS office in Amarillo and get a print out of his number and he can then get his license. That is his plan for Friday.

We got to RV Oasis Resort about 4:00pm, checked in and started to get set up. Chris called and said that they would be over when she got off of work.

They arrived about 5:30 and we showed them around the RV. They had not seen it yet. They liked it very much!

We visited for awhile and then decided it was time for Dinner so we all agreed on Ruby Tequila's for  Mexican food. I could eat Mexican food everyday!

Here are a few photos of our dinner:

 

Chandelier in entryway

Waiter making our Guacamole at the table. We got to choose what ingredients we wanted in them.

Dusty & Christie with their Combo Fajita's for 2

Us...lol

My Combo Fajitas

Mac's Combo Inferno Fajitas

Now this is a rig! He is ready for anything!!  LOL He has a 1 ton truck pulling a flatbed trailer. One the trailer is a Pickup Camper, 2 Sea-Doo's and a Quad runner. Hooked up to the Flatbed trailer is a Ski or Fishing Boat.

I had to think of JB when I saw this because of the email he sent to me about the email I had sent him...JB we looked for you to say "hi" but couldn't find you in the store...LOL

After dinner we returned to the RV and visited for a little while and Chris and Dusty left as they have to work on Friday.

Mac's sister, niece, and her two sons will be her Friday evening for the weekend.

Chris & I will do a little shopping on Friday when she gets off work. I need a couple of things to hang on the walls in the RV and I need to look for a good pair of shoes to walk in.

Stay tuned for our visit in Amarillo!

Hugs to everyone!

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday in Plains & New Great Grandson

Sorry for not updating daily as I had planned. There has been a lot going on here for the last 3 days! Whew are we tired!!

We arrived in Plains on Sunday, set up the RV and headed to Liberal as Ashley was on bedrest in the hospital with contractions. She is 5 weeks early!

Monday was spent all day in Liberal at the hospital with Ashley. The doctor wanted her to hold off for at least 5 days but don't think it's gonna happen.

We left Liberal about 4:00pm and went back to the RV and Dana went to Dakoda's volleyball practice. We went over to Dana & Russell's house about 7:45 for dinner. They had cooked Salisbury Steak, mashed potatoes, and fresh corn for dinner. It was wonderful!

We got to visit with the other kids and took some photos.

Brylee

 

Brylee & Grandma Nette

Jaelynn & Cody

Russell & Dana

Grandpa and Brylee

Jaelynn after putting on Crystal's mascara

Britny

Tuesday was spent pretty much the same as Monday. We went to Liberal and spent most of the day with Ashley hoping she would deliver before we left but knowing that she would be better off if she didn't.

We left Liberal about 5:30 headed to Southwestern Heights School to watch Britny and her team play in a Volleyball Duel with Liberal.

Britny's team won 3 out of the 5 sets! YEAH!

We left the game and ran back to Liberal to check on Ashley. No change, so we all went to Pizza Hut for some dinner and then back home.

We were up Wednesday morning getting the RV ready for travel when Dana and Jaelynn showed up to tell us goodbye. While they were here, Ashley called and said that they were going to start Pit on her and she would be having the baby today! So we made a couple of phone calls and changed our reservation and an appointment that we had and were going to stay another day.

Caiden James made his appearance at 4:09pm weighing in at 6 lbs 2 oz and was 19" long! This is a baby that was supposed to be 4-1/2 weeks early!! No telling how big he might have been if he had waited to be born...lol

Ashley & Caiden

Caiden

Caiden

Grandpa & Caiden

Grandma Nette & Caiden

Brylee 21 days old, and Caiden 4 hours old

Crystal & Brylee, Ashley & Caiden and Dakoda peeking in back

Britny made me a pillow for the truck, for me to use to sleep with or just to relax. I will try to take a photo of it tomorrow and post on next blog.

We will be leaving in the morning heading south to Dumas TX for truck and RV inspections and for Mac to get his Texas Drivers License. Then we will head on to Amarillo to see Chris & Dusty.

Mac's sister, Linda, our niece, Jan, and Jan's 2 boys will be in Amarillo over Labor Day weekend so we will get to spend some time with them also.

Stay tuned to see what will happen next on this first retirement journey!

Hugs to everyone!!