Thursday, July 21, 2011

First Time in Over 30 Years

I did something yesterday that I haven't done in over 30 years and thought I never would do again..... but I'll get to that later.

 I want to show you some pictures of Horseshoe Lakes Thousand Trails. It is a very quiet, spacious place with 11 different small lakes. There were a lot of walking trails through the woods around the lakes. Sydney and Holly found it a nice change from riding around in the jeep in Yellowstone and walking around WalMart parking lots.


One day when I took the garbage to the dumpster I found these 2 guys hiding out.

It seems they jumped in during the night and got stuck...it had been emptied the previous day and the garbage bag level wasn't high enough for them to get back out. John found a tree branch long enough to reach bottom to top and we left the top open. Within a few minutes the 2 scampered across the lawn into the woods.

We spent time with our friend Ray while his wife Millie was back in Mass visiting family and friends. Ray took us to Paris for dinner..... Paris Illinois that is. Once Millie returned, we headed back home. Since we were on the European track we spent our first night back on the road in London.... London Indiana.

Saturday around noon we pulled into the Trout Run dinner parking lot. My friend Helen joined us for lunch at the restaurant. We left the RV there and drove the jeep home. Thanks to our friend Darren Smith the driveway was repaired from the damage that occurred during the wet spring. Although he had also lengthened the RV pad, we decided to wait to park the Rose in the driveway due to the increased traffic on the road from the oil/gas drilling. We decided to bring the RV down to the next road from our home, Susqua Road, and park near the pavilion built by the local fishing group..."The Lip Rippers". She stayed there until Monday evening when the volunteer fire company came and stopped traffic so that John could pull across both lanes and back up into the drive. Our neighbor Dave Seeley choreographed it all. Living in a small community has it's advantages. Here is The Rose in her home.


And yes... I've seen Lukas. Jeremy, Chelsea and Lukas came on Sunday for dinner. We ordered Pizza since I wasn't done cleaning the kitchen yet. I have to wash everything before we can cook. John's son Chris joined us also. But here is a picture of Lukas after Wednesday movie and dinner. Harry Potter and Chinese.


He is such a good baby... smiling and cooing all the time. As for my opening statement...... I bought diapers to have at the house for when Lukas visits. Haven't needed to do that for a very long time and I never thought I would need to do it again. Guess you never know.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

On The Road Again...

We left Yellowstone to start our return to Pa. Instead of going through the park again we went north to pick up route 90 and traveled through the southern portion of Montana. Then we went south on 25 through the eastern half of Wyoming. We ran into some strong winds and storms when we neared Cheyenne Wyoming so we pulled into a Sam's Club next to a WalMart to stay overnight. This was the sunset after the storm passed...


There were 11 RVs parked between Sam's and WalMart. The police came and knocked on all our doors asking us to leave. So we caravaned to the nearest truck stop, to spend the night. That was the first time in 2 years of traveling that we were ever asked to move. 
We traveled through Nebraska,  Iowa and into Illinois on 80 then headed south on 74 into Indiana to a Thousand Trails Park called Horseshoe Lakes. We are staying here for a few days to meet up with our friends Millie and Ray Surrette, touch base with John's nephew David, do laundry, and rest up for the next leg of the journey.
We drove 80 miles one way into the outskirts of Indy to spend a day with Dave, Debbie, Zach and Kaitlyn Pietch, the son and family of John's sister Bonnie. Zach just graduated from High School.


Millie and Ray told us about a Feline Rescue place nearby so we took a short drive to check it out. It's a non-profit organization that rescues and maintains these beautiful animals. They have over 200 cats from many different circumstances. Here are a few pictures.
A lioness......

A Cougar....


 A Bobcat.....


A Panther.....


Lions.....
A White Tiger.....

If you want to learn more about this great organization or see more exotic felines go to their website www.exoticfelinerescuecenter.org

We head back out onto the road in a few days...... but first a Lukas update.

Lukas got game!!!!


At least someone appreciates my sense of humor...