Ladies Spa Day

As some of you may know, I am one of eight children. Getting a family of this size togeather on a regular basis is very difficult. The "girls" have been trying for some time to have a Spa Day where we can have "girltime".

Well they say the third time is a charm... Saturday the 24th was our third attempt. Although only 5 of us were able to go, it was fun.

This is Patty ....THE OLDEST, BY THE WAY.... soaking her feet prior to a pedicure.

Then we have Kerry (wearing the print shirt)....  THE BABY OF THE FAMILY..... and Lora.... married to my brother, Kevin.. sipping on Mimossa's. Helen.... previously married to my brother Denny... successfully avoided my camera.

We had, maicure's, pedicure's, and facials. It was so nice to be pampered especially after all the house cleaning I have been doing.

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig

Here she is.... back on her throne in the driveway. We arrived back in town about 3:30 PM on Monday April 12. The house was cold, musty and dusty but in decent shape for being abandoned for almost 7 months. It took me about 5 days to clean and scrub everything. We had no broken water pipes but it took several days before the water ran clear and I could do laundry. My flower beds are a mess and willl need lots of tender loving care. In February there was some high water that took 6 to 7 feet of our creek bank downstream. There are 3 large trees that now have significant amounts of their root structure exposed, so we may loose them. We'll just have to wait and see. The trees are just starting to show their leaves... and the Lilac is budding it's flowers.

The dogs started getting excited when we were within 3 to 4 miles of the house. They knew where we were. They ran around smelling everything.... looking for what's different. I was amazed..... Sydney wasn't in the house for 10 minutes when he went to the front door and rang the bell to tell me he wanted to go out. I have a wind chime hanging next to the front door with an extended string down to Sydney's nose level. When he was a puppy, I taught him to nose the string to ring the chimes when he needed to go out. Although Sydney barks, he only does it when he's in guard mode. He would stand for long periods of time by the door before I noticed him, so I devised the chime thing to save him from discomfort.

Saturday the 17th was the opening day of Trout Fishing here in our county. The local fishing club (Camp Susque Lip Rippers) camped out down by the creek. We visited their campsite and listened to stories of the one that got away as well as the "water's too cold" excuses. They are a nice bunch of fella's and fun to spend time with.

Gettin our kicks on Route 66

Our trip back to Pa was planned to take us down the infamous Route 66..... portions of it anyway. What a hoot! It was like going back in time to the 50's & 60's. We saw a motel whose rooms were all separate teepees, made of cement and painted to look like canvas. Parked outside each one was a vintage car from this era. We passed by the Cadillac Ranch in Texas where a row of cadillac cars are partially buried, nose down, and painted grafetti style. We saw numerous 50 & 60 style dinners, gas stations, and billboards.

Attached are two pictures I took at a state rest area. Who says Arkansas doesn't have a sense of humor?
We averaged a little over 200 miles of traveling per day. John was on a mission to get home. We stopped in Kentucky near Mammouth Caves for a few days to refill the water tank and dump our waste water. Because we monitor the weather closely when we travel, we were aware of a bad storm with high winds coming towards us so we hunkered down once again for 2 days.
Our path home changed slightly when we received an e-mail from John's nephew, Dave Pietch (John's sister's son), inviting us to stop by Indianapolis on our way home.  Since we were in Kentucky we took the slight detour and spent a very enjoyable weekend with Dave, Debbie, Zack and Kaitlyn. What a lovely family. We toured the Food Bank that they run for their church and had a chauffered tour of the Indy area. Then it was back on the road.... I swear John can smell the house...

On the Road Again ....Petrified Forest / Painted Desert

March 30th, we hit the road again. John thinks it is time to start heading back east. I think it's too early.... spring rain and storms....  but since he's the driver, off we go. The day did not start off very well. We went to a gas station to fill the tank and had to wait for 45 minutes until the computer came back on line to take our debit card. After an hour driving the wind started to pick up and we were subjected to 20 - 35 mile an hour wind gusts. In addition some parts of the road were extremely rutted and we jiggled quite a bit. As a matter of fact the latch that holds the outside awning jiggled loose and one of those gusts of wind decided to open up our awning as we were driving down the road. Luckily, we were able to pull over, get the awning back in, latch it and then "Magiver" fix it (masking tape around the poles) so that it wouldn't jiggle loose again. We saw another fifth wheel RV who had a flat tire, and didn't realize it until the tire caught on fire. 

Our destination was north and east of Cottonwood along route 40. It is the Painted Desert National Park and Petrified Forest. We arrived mid-day and spent the night in the parking lot of the gift center at the entrance to the park. There is no camping in the park but the shops allow RVs to stay free of charge over night. Early the next morning we entered the park. The drive through the park is about 28 miles long but it takes about 2-3 hours with the many pull-offs and vistas. These pictures just don't do it justice.

I was able to collect some petrified wood samples at the gift shop. Picking up anything in the park is forbidden and strickly enforced.

After leaving the park we continued along route 40 to New Mexico... Tijeras to be exact... just east of Albuquerque. We couldn't fight the wind any longer and decided to stay at a campground here. We were going to leave today, but decided to stay put another day or two because we are now watching snow flurries out the front window.