Preparations for Hurricane Dorian

Fletcher and Lance were planning on coming up this weekend, but because of Dorian they are going to be staying home.

Tuesday the 27th Mike got gas in our car and filled 4 gas cans for the generator. I bought some groceries and 2 cases of bottled water.

Wednesday the 28th we put Barb's shutters on her house across the street since it now appears that Dorian will become a hurricane. The next day we put the furniture on her screened in porch inside her house and put shutters on one window and closed the accordion shutters on her 2 sliding glass doors.

Friday I took Tinker in for his grooming appointment. Then that afternoon Mike and I went to Home Depot and bought 6 sheets of 1/2" plywood for our front windows. We also stopped at the vet's office and got some anxiety pills for Tinker. In his old age, he has become anxious during some of the thunderstorms and really doesn't like it when the power goes off, even if it's just a short time.

Saturday Mike and I covered the 2 garage windows with plywood. By then it looked like we might only get tropic storm winds and we decided to wait before covering the other front windows.

Sunday the track for Dorian had changed and he was now a Cat 5. So we covered the front window to the dining room and the front bedroom window with plywood. Mike had cut a "peep hole" covered it with Plexiglas in one of the plywood sheets and we put that on the bedroom window. Mike and I both like to be able to see out and it will give us a good view of the front yard and the big oak tree in front of the garage.

We also tied down the travel trailer in the driveway. Mike had bought some 4' steel anchors that are used to tie down mobile homes and put 2 down on each side of the driveway. So yesterday we pulled the trailer up and positioned it between the anchors and used straps to attach the trailer's frame to each of the anchors.

I've left my potted plants outside for the time, hoping they'll get some rain before I have to move them into the storage shed.

Our winds are picking up, but we haven't had much rain yet. Right after we had lunch, we heard on the news that FPL said they were having some power outages in parts of Indian River County. So I guess I'll post this now - we do have a generator in case our power does go out.

August Notes

We have had a LOT of rain this month - almost 14" in just the first 2 weeks!

I cut up the pineapple we grew and it was really good and sweet! I saved the top and planted it in a flower pot and put in our front flower bed. When I was walking Tinker the morning of the 8th, I realized something wasn't quite right in the flower bed - I couldn't see the pineapple that I had planted a few days earlier.

Sometime during the night a critter had dug up the pineapple top and gnawed off most of the fruit. The pot is on the left of the photo and the top of the pineapple is up on the right.

So I've repotted the pineapple top and it is now inside the house - safe from any night marauding critters.

Another morning surprise when I was walking Tinker, was this rainbow in the western sky behind our house. I couldn't resist taking a photo of it.

So now we have a tropical storm out in the Atlantic that may or may not be heading this way. Guess we'll be watching the weather forecasts closer now.

Mike got gas in the car this morning and filled 4 gas cans so we'll have gas for the generator should the storm come this way. I went to Publix and got some groceries and 2 cases of bottled water. 

Visit with Fletcher & Our Homegrown Pineapple

Tinker had his staples and steel sutures taken out the first of this month. We kept the surgery collar on him for another week after that. Then he was healed enough to visit the groomer's for a cut and bath - which he really needed.

Our friend Barbara's birthday was July 4 and we took her a bouquet of flowers and a small birthday cake. She had moved out of her house across the street from us into an assisted living apartment earlier this year.  It's a really nice facility - the staff are always welcoming and nice and Barb has moved some of her furniture there from her house and several pieces of artwork. 

The weekend of the 20th we went down to visit with Fletcher and Lance in Fort Lauderdale. They had just moved into the house a few weeks earlier. Lance had bought an old house and had totally gutted it and had a new one built with a pool. There is also a 1 bedroom pool house complete with a full bath, laundry room, and a small kitchen. It will eventually be a seasonal rental unit. We stayed in the pool house which was very comfortable. 

Fletcher grilled steaks with squash and eggplant for dinner one night.

Fletcher and Lance took us to Pelican Landing for lunch at the Pier 66 Marina and we saw the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship getting ready to go out on another cruise.

As we were getting ready to leave Fletcher's to come back home, we saw this baby iguana on their patio.

The pineapple that we grew from the plant Fletcher gave us a couple of years was finally ripe enough for

Tinker's Surgery & Mike's Computer Died

Tinker's had a large lump on his right side at the bottom of his rib cage for several months. It didn't appear to bother him and we had decided to not have it removed unless it started to give him trouble. Tinker took the matter out of our hands the first of this month when he licked the lump until it opened and started to drain - Yuck! So another trip to Sebastian Animal Hospital to see our vet Dr. Slade and to schedule the surgery. His technician drew blood to check to see how Tinker would handle the surgery and to see if there were any underlying problems. His blood work came out fine especially for a 13 year old dog. 

Tinker had another lump between his chest and right front leg (his armpit) that had developed years ago and had slowly gotten larger, but never gave him a problem. So we decided to have it removed also and he needed to have his teeth cleaned. 

Tinker came out of the surgery really well and a week later we took him back to the vet to have the staples removed from his side and the steel sutures removed under his right leg. 

Tinker had to wear an Elizabethan collar before and after his surgery. We bought him a padded vinyl collar and he did really well with it. 

The week before Tinker had his surgery, Mike's laptop wouldn't boot up one day. So after several different tries and ways trying to get it to boot up, I ended up taking it to a local computer shop. The hard drive was corrupted or dead and we had to have a new hard drive installed. The bad news was that the data on the original hard drive couldn't be recovered. What made things worse, was the fact that his computer hadn't been backed up. I had asked Mike sometime back about backing it up, but he said he really didn't have that much on there that was important.

WRONG!! When we were on our trip out to Utah, we had a small camera mounted on the dash of the car and took movies of our drives to and through the national parks. Mike would copy the movies each night from the SD cards to his laptop, and now they are all gone!! I

Back to normal after our trip

We've unloaded our clothes and emptied the refrigerator in the trailer and caught up on the laundry from our trip and cleaned the inside of the trailer - that took up the first half of this month. 

On the 4th I took Tinker in to the groomer's for a cut and bath which he really needed after our trip. We did bathe him when we were at Moab, but he hadn't been groomed since before we left in March. 

We went up to the IMAX theater in West Melbourne on the 7th to see the Avengers - Endgame movie and had dinner afterwards at the El Sombrero Mexican restaurant in Melbourne. 

I went to see my foot and ankle doctor in Vero about the plantar fasciitis in my right foot that started right before we left for Utah. I had an X-ray and an ultrasound done on my foot and got a cortisone injection in my heel. I also got a nylon brace to wear on my foot during the day and a list of exercises to do. So far between wearing the foot brace and doing the exercises and the cortisone shot, my pain level is much lower and I'm walking better. I just wish that the plantar fasciitis had started earlier, so I would have had time to see the doctor before we left on our trip. I was able to do some hiking, but for only the short trails and then the next day I would pay for it and have a lot of pain.

Tinker's allergies started bothering him after we had been home a couple of weeks. I took him to the groomer's for a bath hoping that would help with him scratching all the time. I ended up taking him to the vet and h
e prescribed Apoquel which has had a lot of success and we started Tinker off with 2 tablets a day for 2 weeks and then he just needs 1 a day. It really worked because Tinker quit scratching the same day we started him on the pills. 

We ate at a couple of our favorite restaurants here in Sebastian - Ay Jalisco and the Sandwich Shack. Mike had the tires on the Pilot rotated and balanced. 

As much fun as we had on our trip, it's nice to be back home and get back into our normal routine.

We are Home

When we got up this morning at 7:00, the temp was in the mid-60's and humid and foggy. Right after breakfast, Mike went out to empty the black tank and flush it and then empty the gray tank. 

We left Madison Campground this morning at 8:40 and got on to I-10 East. We took the bypass around Jacksonville and stopped for gas at a Flying J just south of St. Augustine on I-95 and paid $3.249 a gallon for gas. We parked the car and trailer and went in to the Subway there and had lunch. We both ordered a turkey foot-long sub meal and we saved half of our subs for supper tonight. We then got back on to I-95 and exited at the Sebastian exit.

We arrived home at 3:00 and Mike backed the trailer on to the driveway. 

Tomorrow we will level the trailer and unhitch the car. Our neighbor Bruce came over to welcome us home and we thanked him for watching the house and he even watered our flowerbeds when he noticed the plants were drooping.

We unloaded the things we will need for tonight from the trailer and emptied the frig. Then an hour after

Change of Plans for Tonight's Campground

We got up this morning at 7:30 - we slept in a little this morning since we only have 223 miles to drive today. We left Leisure Time RV Park at 9:00. I had missed getting a photo of the campground sign, so I took it as we were leaving.

We got on I-75 and headed south. We debated whether to drive through Atlanta or to take I-285 around Atlanta. I kept checking the traffic situation on my iPhone and it looked like I-75 was a better choice. It turned out that we chose correctly, there was a lot of traffic, but it kept moving with no holdups or problems.

We were making such good time today, that we decided to drive farther than we originally planned and decided to stop at Madison Campground in Madison, FL.

We stopped to get gas at a Flying J station at Jackson, GA at 11:15. We paid $3.229 a gallon for premium. We decided to eat an early lunch at the Denny's there and found a RV parking slot to park in. We left the engine and A/C running (with the doors locked) while we went in to eat lunch. It was 12:20 when we got back on to I-75.

I looked in the back seat this afternoon and saw that Tinker had pulled Bear (his favorite toy) up on the seat with him. It was so cute with Tinker snuggling with Bear and napping.

After lunch we called Madison Campground and made a reservation for tonight. It is a Passport America

Clarksville, TN to Adairsville, GA

It was 61° when we left Spring Creek Campground this morning at 8:45. I had missed getting a photo of the campground sign yesterday, so I got a photo this morning.

We got on to I-24 and headed east towards Nashville. We passed through Nashville at 9:40 and I managed to get a few photos of Nashville's skyline.

We stopped for gas at 11:20 at a Pilot Truck Stop at Monteagle, TN and paid $3.179 a gallon for premium grade. We had decided to have lunch at the Wendy's at the Pilot, but there were no parking spaces for RVs. We drove over to the truck entrance for Pilot and found a place we could park that was out of the way of the trucks.

We had stopped yesterday at a Wendy's for lunch and I had wanted Chicken Tenders, but they said they were out. So today I was ready to order Chicken Tenders and was told that Wendy's has discontinued selling them. Really?! I ordered a Son of Baconator meal and Mike got one but with chili instead of fries. It was 71° when we stopped for lunch, so we left the car & A/C running while we had lunch. 

After feeding and walking Tinker, we called Leisure Time RV Park to make a reservation for tonight. He

Cave-in-Rock Ferry Ride and Spring Creek Campground

We got up this morning at 7:00 and it was 44° with a wind chill of 39°. Jack fixed homemade biscuits and gravy for breakfast this morning - a great start for our day. After breakfast, Mike and I loaded our stuff in the trailer and hitched up the car. We thanked Frances and Jack for the great food and visit before we left.

We drove south on IL-34 to IL-142 and then south on IL-1 

to the town of Cave-in-Rock to take the ferry across the Ohio River to Kentucky. 

We arrived at the river's edge at 10:45 and the Cave-in-Rock ferry had already left and was crossing the Ohio River to Kentucky.

The river was a lot higher this time than when we were here last and that's due to all of the rain that has come through this area. We got out of the car and walked Tinker while we waited for the ferry to return.

There were several cars on the returning ferry and once they disembarked, we were signaled to drive on to the ferry. There were several cars that boarded the ferry after us. 

We left Illinois at 11:00 and started across the Ohio River and we were able to get out of the car.

Visit with Sue's Cousins

This morning Frances' husband Jack fixed waffles and bacon for breakfast - a great way to start the morning. The morning started out sunny, but changed to cloudy and then rain. Fortunately, the rain was only sporadic and not the downpour we had had on Thursday.

My cousin Eva and her son Bruce drove over from Troy, IL this morning and met us at the Bonnie Cafe in West Frankfort at 12:30 for lunch. My cousin Sally joined us a little later, so there were 7 of us - Mike and I, Frances & Jack, Eva, Bruce and Sally.  

Then after lunch we all drove over to Sally's house for dessert and coffee. We had chocolate pie and small lemon muffins and coffee.

In the photo above are - Jack (Frances' husband), Bruce (Eva's son), Sally, Frances, Eva and me. I hadn't met Bruce and it was nice to finally meet him - I'd heard his mother Eva talk about him and his brothers over the years. 

We had a great visit, but it came time for Bruce and Eva to head back home and we left at the same time. Before we returned to their house, they took us on a drive and we drove out of West Frankfort to see the house my parents lived in during the 1930's and Frances' parents lived next door. Frances' dad and my dad were brothers.

We've had a good time visiting with them, but we are leaving in the morning and heading south.

Trip to Old Cemeteries in Vienna

This morning when we got up, the rain was gone and the sun was out - a much nicer day than yesterday. After breakfast Mike and I drove the 44 miles down to Vienna 

to look for a couple of cemeteries that my great-grandparents and 2nd great-grandparents are buried in. I had looked up the directions and knew where they were located.

The first one we went to was the Wildcat Cemetery and was down a narrow gravel road.

We parked the car just off of the road and started walking around the cemetery. I was looking for my Utley great-grandparents, but unfortunately the majority of the gravestones were unreadable and there were a large number of stones that were broken or only pieces of the stones were still there.

We then drove back into Vienna and down another road to find the Holt Cemetery. According to Google Maps there was a road leading out to the cemetery, but when we got to the location of the road it wasn't

Jonesburg to Benton, IL

It was foggy when we got up this morning and was supposed to start raining here at Jonesburg. Mike hadn't emptied our black or gray water tanks at the last couple of campgrounds, but he emptied them this morning before we left the campground at 9:35.

We stopped at the Phillips 66 station at the I-70 exit to get gas before we got on to I-70 East. We paid $3.059 a gallon for premium grade. It was 10:00 when we got on I-70 and it had warmed up to 57°. 

Not too long after we got on I-70 the fog quickly changed to rain, so it really cut down on my photo taking today.

We crossed the Missouri River about 10:40.

A couple of minutes later before we crossed the Mississippi River, I did get a photo of the Gateway Arch through the fog and rain.

Then we crossed the Mississippi River

and entered Illinois.

We stopped in Mount Vernon for lunch at a Denny's. Fortunately it had stopped raining when we got to

Driving from Paxico, KS to Jonesboro, MO

It was a little warmer this morning when we got up at 7:00. By the time we left the campground at 9:00, the temperature was 57°. Yesterday when we arrived here at Paxico, we could see several really old buildings in town and decided to drive around a bit before we left this morning. 

We left Paxico and got on I-70 East. It was foggy and overcast for most of today which made taking photos of the scenery a challenge. 

We drove through Topeka and crossed the Kansas River at 10:15.

About a half hour later we drove through Kansas City. I don't know if the haze over the city is normal or not, but it made it difficult to see much of the city.

It wasn't until after we passed through Kansas City, did I realize I had missed the signs for the Kansas and

Driving from Oakley to Paxico, Kansas

We got up at 7:00 this morning because we had 300 miles to drive today to our next campground in Grantville, KS. It was 35° when we got up, but had warmed up to 37° with a wind chill of 32° when we started to break camp. While Mike was disconnecting the electric, I took photos of our campsite and the campground that we didn't take yesterday.

It was 8:40 when we left the campground and stopped to get gas at the Cenex station ($3.149 a gallon) before getting on to I-70.

I didn't take a lot of road pictures today because we drove mostly through flat farmland.

But I did find some interesting things to take photos of such as this old house made out of natural stone and the barn next to it.

We decided to shorten our driving day and cancelled our reservation at the campground in Grantville, KS. We called a Good Sam campground at Paxico, KS and made a reservation for tonight which shortened our driving day by 36 miles.

We saw a lot of wind turbine farms

and a lot of oil wells pumping oil out in the farm land.

We stopped to get gas again at a Cenex ($3.299 a gallon) station in Russell, KS. There was a Pizza Hut across the street from the gas station and we went there for lunch. We found a place where we could park

Cherry Creek State Park to High Plains Camping

We left Cherry Creek State Park Campground this morning at 8:30. It was 41° and the wind chill was 37°. It was misting rain when we broke camp and it finally became rain as we got on to I-70 east. Because of the rain and fog, I wasn't able to take as many photos this morning as I usually would have.

After a couple of hours, the fog had lifted and we could see farther down the road.

The terrain was totally different from yesterday's drive and consisted mostly of farm land with a few farms scattered here and there. We also saw a lot of wind farms with wind turbines - some turning

Driving through the Rocky Mountains to Cherry Creek State Park

Mike forgot to set the alarm last night, so we didn't get up until 8:00. It was misting rain while we were breaking camp. We left the campground at 10:00 and it was 48° with a wind chill of 45°. We got on to I-70 and headed east and by then we started to have rain - not good for taking photos!

Fortunately the rain didn't last but maybe a half hour, so my chances of getting some good photos improved. Interstate 70 follows along the course of the Colorado River winding through the mountains which means I-70 is just as curvy as the river.

We passed through some green valleys before getting into the higher elevations.

We kept climbing until we reached the ski slopes of Vail

and I even managed to get a photo of people