Ken and Kim's Big Adventure: August 2011

Can’t believe it has been almost a month since updating our journey on here. Life has been treating us very well, and although we really haven’t participated in a lot of exciting activities, we’ve certainly been enjoying ourselves. The weather has been absolutely perfect lately – mild temps and low humidity, with only a few rain showers that occur mostly at night. However, we did experience a rather nasty thunderstorm while we were in Coralville at the end of July. It came up suddenly during the night, and Ken had to go out and pull in the awning on our camper. Unfortunately, a part of it broke off, although we were able to purchase a replacement for it the next day. We’re discovering that living in our motor home is not very different than a “sticks and bricks” house. They both still require routine maintenance and often costly upkeep. Ken recently spent several hours replacing the thermostat in our water heater, and also had to fix the outside door which had been whipped out of his hand during a bout of windy weather. Luckily, he is very knowledgeable and able to perform most tasks himself. After leaving Coralville, we moved to Fairport near Muscatine. The weather was extremely hot and humid, and the docks had to be dismantled due to flooding along the river. On July 28, I flew to Atlanta to spend a week with Kirsten, Paul and Lucas. Our grandson is growing up so fast – today he turns two! - and his vocabulary is expanding quickly, as well as his ability to entertain me with his antics. Ken and I will drive down to visit again in mid-September. On our 38th wedding anniversary August 4th, we set up camp at Shady Creek, a few miles away. Tom and Nancy brought their motor home out and we hung out together for several days. We decided to spend some time at the local casinos, where Ken was quite lucky! So we returned the next day, and surprisingly that luck rubbed off on Nancy, too. Last Sunday we strapped our bikes to the back of the camper and drove here to Lake Red Rock, near Pella, IA. It has been about 25 years since we’ve been to this campground, and we actually managed to get the same site we had back then, when our kids were with us in our travel trailer. We last visited the Iowa State Fair at that time, and returned this past Monday. Not to offend anyone, but Ken and I agreed that we probably wouldn’t ever feel the need to go to the Fair again. After waiting almost an hour in a line to ride the shuttle there, and paying $10.00 each to enter, we were accosted by at least a hundred greasy food stands, hawking commercial vendors and loud politicians. It was interesting, though, to see the many beautiful quilts on display, but that was actually the highlight of the day for me. Luckily, we have enjoyed our scenic campsite right on the lake, and the well-kept meandering bike trail that surrounds it. Unfortunately, we must leave here tomorrow. Our destination will be Shady Creek for awhile, since I will be substitute-teaching all week and part of the next. Hoping we’ll be able to sneak in a visit to Iowa City over Labor Day week-end to see Kyle and Rachel, who will be in town for a friend’s wedding (and celebrating Rachel’s birthday on Sunday). After returning from Atlanta in September, we will most likely be storing the motor home for awhile, living again at Tom and Nancy’s house, with only periodic week-end camping trips until the weather turns cold. Then, it’s back to Texas for at least three months this winter, hopefully meeting NO turkeys on our way! Thanks for following along with us – it’s always nice to hear from all of you!