Saturday, April 14, 2012

Back Home Again in Indiana



After spending a night with son Dan and family, we had brunch with son Mark in the morning and arrived in Elkhart on the 10th of April, only to be greeted with 35 mile an hour winds and snow! Since then its been several trips to the storage area to gather more items that needed to come to our apartment. I think we’ve finally gotten halfway back to normal. It’s amazing how 3 months away left us confused as to where things were in the apartment. Notice how I attributed the confusion to our 3 months away and not to our aging dementia.

It’s really great to be home, but we’ve already started a box for items we will need in our condo next year. Even though the condo is competely furnished and equippecd, there are things like office supplies, printer, CD’s, trash bags and files that we will need. It goes without saying, we are looking forward to the Navarre vacation with the Gulf of Mexico just 20 steps away from our back door. Of course there is also the benefit of great gas mileage next year since we won’t be dragging the Sunset Trail behind my gas guzzling truck. We’ll be driving Mary Ellen’s little PT Cruiser.

Our agenda over the next two months requires a few road trips. In May we’re going to CT for my youngest grandson’s First Communion, On our way back we’ll be stopping in Stow, OH at Mary Ellen’s sister’s and visiting my sister in Akron. In June we’ll be going to Nauvoo, IL to meet up with my good friend Steve McBride. Its been about 20 years since I’ve seen Steve. We both were employed at Bayer Diagnostics. Steve lives in Salt Lake City, but he and his wife, Darcy, are spending a year in Nauvoo on a
Morman Mission. When we leave Nauvoo we’ll travel to Quincy, IL and spend a couple weeks with our friends Diane and Jeff Bloss. Now that Jeff has gotten up off the floor, I should  confess I made up the part about a couple weeks. Ten days should be plenty of time to get reaquainted!! We didn’t see much of Jeff and Diane at Emerald Beach RV park in Navarre. Jeff and Diane moved to the high rent district of the park. Jeff made the lame excuse that he needed more space for their new travel trailer. We saw right through that one. They simply wanted a change of scenery if you know what I mean! Ten days in Quincy should more than make up for that!

In July we will take the Sunset Trail out of storage and set up camp at Spaulding Campground in Niles, MI. Since Spaulding is only 25 miles from home, I’m sure we’ll be back and forth a few times during the month. Lastly, our summer reunion with the Emerald Beach gang is scheduled for September. This year we’ll be setting up camp in Indiana. The site hasn’t been finalized as yet, but it looks like it’ll be Bass Lake Beach in Knox, IN. Mary Ellen and I will check out the place in May to see if it meets our very high standards!

I should mention that our trip home from Florida almost came off without a problem. The brakes on the truck worked well and the tires on the trailer ran smoothly. The one problem occurred at our last campground before Indy. We were staying at the Louisville South KOA. The morning prior to leaving for Indy I planned to flush the black water tank. I opened the valve to drain it and nothing happened. After spending an hour applying my vast amount of knowledge in an attempt to solve the problem, I resigned myself to spending some $$$ and having a real expert solve the problem. However, the ever crafty Mary Ellen approached Rex, the work camper, and used her best “poor female in distress” approach. Rex fell for it and told her he thought he might be able to help. He brought his magic wand with hose attached and after about 20 minutes he broke up the log jam and the draining began! I would recommend the KOA south in Louisville if your in the neighborhood. Tell Rex ‘thanks again’.

jim

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