Leaving Arch in St Louis Missouri 9-17-09

Well had a great two nights here -laid back, did a couple things (gambled, since we stayed in an RV casino park which was very nice & black topped) & now we're heading towards Springfield, Missouri & possibly Branson if time permits! I dropped a pic that I took from the top of the arch of our camp site which was at the Casino Queen across the river-amazing views from up yonder :o)
While in St Louis we did the Anheuser Busch tour and sampled their beer, yup that's right-Joe & I who don't even drink beer-did that tour! Pretty interesting and I even found a beer that I like-it's called Michelob Bock....pretty good stuff! Joe still isn't converted tho & I don't think I will be either but it is different, lol. We even tasted their pumpkin beer coming out this month, yuk!
Then of course we did the tour of the Arch and boy was that pretty amazing-you go up 680' or so in this tiny little pod (and believe me if it was more than a 4 minute ride I wouldn't have been in it) and then you're on top of the world! I'll try to add some shots of the city (I took their ball stadium & one of a church or the waterfront) we'll see which one looks best :o)
Oh & of course since we stayed at a casino, we signed up for the players card & used that the first night & received a tailgate chair and comp tickets to see Legends in Concert the next night (opening night) very good-if I must say so myself! I actually got to play a little poker that night too & won a little bit- 3/6 table for about 2 hrs. Found out they used to have to pay to come into the casino's $15 and had to leave by 4 AM, now they don't charge but have to still leave by that time :o(....can you imagine! Also, something about Missouri has to be within 1,000 ft of water on or water and Illinois doesn't have to be on water so they are in direct competition right across the river from each other. Plus one of them has smoking in the casino and the other doesn't....very strange rules here-for sure!
P.S Happy Birthday Brother Dearest in Alaska - how old does today make you??

Milan, Indiana Pat & Dan Hill's house finally :o)

Milan:
Well, finally hooked up with Pat & Dan-only been about 16 years :o) But, hit them on a good weekend-we went to something called a "Shoot" it's a re-enactment with teepee's, indians, cowboys, etc and all kinds of crafts-spent all afternoon there and oh yeah did I say we stopped at a new casino first, lol. Yup, they have casino's here too-made my day! But, of course we all lost (only stayed about hour or two) They're both retired, so we can play the whole time we're here :o)
We pulled in about 5 PM on Friday & I was panicking about my tooth so ended up calling my dentist back home (god bless him) he told me to get something called DenTemp and its like silly putty-use it until I get home and then he'll fix my tooth & boy, touch wood, it's working like a charm (so far)
Dan & Pat's house is beautiful & definitely a showcase for Longaberger (LOL) - a huge 4 BR w/in law suite (which is really their Master Bedroom) on a large lot) on a golf course-I know Joey you would just love to live here-walk out your back door and hit some balls :o) Dan took dad for a tour on his little golf cart thingy up to the clubhouse last night-it's a golfers heaven-apparently!
Now, we understand why they would never come back to PA or Juniper St-they can get so much more for their money here!

Oh well, signing off for now-tomorrow morning we're heading out for I don't know where...I think a campground in Kentucky but I'll let you know when we get there! Oh, I forgot to tell you this little place called Milan had no cell service for Verizon so we've been virtually unavailable to civilization for the past three days (my husband has been loving that)

Zanesville, Ohio & Longaberger Basket town

We, what an awesome day we had! Left the campsite around 10, headed out to see Longaberger with few stops along the way (of course I had to forget deodorant & Joe forgot windshield washer) so Wal Mart here we come :o)

Oh & our discharge on the electrical system seems to have been nothing but loose battery cable wires :o( Apparently (I got nervous yesterday when the OG kept blinking in between the normal blinks) so I called the place where we bought the trailer and spoke to them-well they are just the nicest guys in the whole world (Slicers Campers & Trailers in Delaware) They went into the internet (after calling the factory rep) now mind you we did not buy this gadget to control the trailer brakes from them, just the trailer-but still they spent a couple hours trouble shooting the error code for us! Came back to tell us what this OG meant & it meant "Open Ground" so then that sent us looking for what this means and.....this morning when I bought the windshield washer-Joe went to pour it in and looked at the cables on the battery (which had just been installed recently) and noticed they were very loose-so out comes the wrench...tightens that up and lo and behold no more error codes on this break gadget!!!! Go figure, so again we slip in under the gun & save a major cost/repair- cha ching cha ching

We head off to Frezeysburg to see some baskets and baskets and baskets- man when I say baskets, I mean baskets. This town has so many baskets, it is unbelievable. You name it and they have a basket for it! We watched them make baskets in the factory, then Joe got the brainstorm-if they can make them, why can't we? And sure enough-we can & we did! Took about 3/4 hr but it is absolutely adorable....it's called a large berry basket & we got to choose the colors & tacks for the sides and make the whole thing - start to finish! What a cool and neat idea!

After that -it was off to tour the land of Longaberger! What an amazing, inspirational man Dave was & very generous in his day (deceased now) He donated, built and participated in much of what went into the area till his dying day. I'll attach some pictures we took today

Actually we took pictures of their office building which is in the shape of one of the picnic baskets-it is seven stories high and they say at night it is all lit up and very stunning. Then we went into Dresden & saw the biggest basket right in the center of town.....and trust me when I say every store was a basket store of some sort! Would've spent more time there, but good ole Linda was backing up just one more step (to take a picture of Joe in front of the biggest basket) when she stepped into a hole (covered with grass) and of course wrenched her back-so needless to say the spasms & pain started almost immediately (glad I had my meds with) but I ended up flat on my back the whole ride back to the trailer (about 30 minutes) in the back of the suburban! Then laid on my heating pad for about another hour while Joe went back out to find someplace that had a Y bridge (yup that's right it's a Y) and when he came back I felt a little better so got up and we had something to eat .....I decided on yogurt w/ granola & when I bit down on I guess a piece of granola & broke off a piece of my molar-so now I need a Dentist rather quickly because my molar is basically wide open ;o(

So the day off really good and ended up rather poorly.....

Hope tomorrow brings something a little less frazzling, but wait till you see how cute this basket is....I told Joe it really does make up for our little trip to McDonald's, lol.....cause I told him I was never going to let him live that one down!

Tomorrow is Friday & I just put in a frantic call to our friends (Dan & Pat) who we're going to see in Milan, In. when we leave here (asking them to see if their dentist will see me tomorrow afternoon) So, here's hoping and praying that he will! If not, Joe just came up with an idea and maybe the very nice lady at the office here (the one with the Bailey look a like) has a dentist and we'll just delay leaving & get an appt somewhere in Zanesville

Well, I'll finish this post tomorrow and add the rest of the pics then.....

Day 1-on the road :o)

Alrighty-we made it out the door this morning 9:15 AM & actually got as far as Ohio...a little town called Zanesville that is actually very close to the place where Longaberger baskets are made -SO0ooo guess where we are stopping tomorrow? Yup, can't pass that opportunity up-not being this close to the building shaped like a basket and not actually going to see it-I would never hear the end of it!
Well, let me show you a picture of our stop for dinner today,..,. my husband had to surprise me with this one because I used to love "Big Macs" before I went on this no beef kick a couple months back......

Anyways, we are at the most adorable campsite ever-in fact we were talking about staying here for a week-it is so nice (and clean) and the views are to die for (plus the owner has a yorkie that is a bailey look a like-go figure) So what else could one ask for? Oh and did I say reasonably price and the is wifi free !
Got here too late to take any pictures (plus we had troubles with our electrical system discharging) but I will try to take some tomorrow and download them in that blog....but for now-it's hitting the sack (can't believe I'm saying that it's only 9:23 ) but been a long harrowing day
Oh and Lauren & Ali-so far we've been thru Penna, W. Virginia & Ohio (mark them off)

9 Days to Pull Out!

Well, we're loading the trailer & working our way towards pulling on out! The suburban has had its repairs/tweaks done, the trailer has been inspected-yup can you believe it-PA requires an inspection on trailers! But, alas-we moved it from one driveway to the other last night and the freshwater drain plug popped and our water drained out.....so, now we scurry to try to fix/repair that before we leave. Amazing that on inspection two weeks ago-that was not found to be in need of repair-hmmm, what did they really inspect?

Anyways, it's a $3 part-but I'm sure if we were to take it into a dealer, it would be a $400 repair....so we are going to try and do it ourselves! Might delay our leaving a day or so-we'll see, only because it's a mail order part.

I have (I think) loaded most of the essentials for living on the road-I'm pretty used to doing this, simply because of boat living in the summer-so how much different can it be? Guess I'm going to find out soon enough (plus we'll be going thru several changes of climate during this trip and we will need all kinds of gear for that-so I hear)

I've included interior pics this time- the top left one is pull out sofa that is a queen sleeper & fridge is what you see on left of pic- and the right pic is the left of what you walk into from the front door- the dinette opens into a double bed and you can see the bathroom in the far back-it's cute, quaint & 22' long-it lowers down to about the height of our suburban and it's easier to tow than most trailers and much better on gas consumption (god knows we need that with this hog of a car)

So, wish us luck and in a week or so, we'll be hitting the trails & see this old US of A- who knows maybe seeing something unique enough to post and share with you all :o)

Heard from Brother Bobbo in Alaska

Linda, your so much the techie one, nice site. I tried to post a comment but couldn't quite figure it out, but if this is a family road trip then I think it's only fair to show not only your mug but your loyal and faithful husband (Dad's 1st and most favorite son-in-law) Well I be checking in on your trip, it sounds like fun and a lot more comfortable then what Mary (7 months pregnant), Robert and our 90lb Shepard (with bad gas @ times) did in a station wagon back in 1976 from San Diego to New York.

Enjoy

LOL
Bob Nedzwecky907-617-7383 cell

There ya go- it's that simple to post a Blog- see I'm not so techy :o)
lov ya bro
next time you get to post it
Maybe we can hook up somewhere in the US of A- are you still planning on flying out?
p.s. took your hint too & dug up this ole pic of Joe & I from some cruise we were on way back when- looks like we were happy?

Countdown has begun-Sept 8th is drawing near

OK, I'm really getting nervous about leaving and being away so long :o( Did I say apprehensive too.....Maybe it might be an experience of a lifetime,but hey I like to get where I'm going, enjoy myself & get home-know what I mean? We shall see-and live in a trailer-on the road for 45 days w/my little doggie and my hubby-hmmmm!
We've decided or shall I say- I decided not to let Joe map out our route...I want to not be in a rush to be somewhere at any given time-I do that every day of my life and if we're really going to do this trip, I'd really like to be able to absorb and enjoy whatever sites we do get to see along the way.
The only thing we know is we will be in Vegas for our daughters birthday on 9-24 and we will be in Albuquerque for the BIGGEST Hot Air Balloon Festival I believe in the USA if not in the world by October 2nd! I am soooo excited about that, I can't wait-anyone that knows me-knows I love love love hot air balloons. And one of the greatest gifts/surprises Joe ever got me was a ride for just the two of us in a Hot Air Balloon-definitely the coolest thing ever!