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| This is our skip across 5 states on our way to Thanksgiving with family. There's not much to say about the camps where we only stayed for a night. St. Francois State Park was our first extended stay without full hook-ups. The site had electric but no water or sewer. So before we left Happy Trails in Phillipsburg, we filled our fresh water tank. Some camps with no water or sewer at the sites will have access to those facilities near the office but this State Park did not. We knew we were in trouble when the water pump started sounding like it was struggling to send water out of the tank. We started conserving and relied on Bob's cousin, Loretta, for laundry services and replenishing our filtered water for drinking. |
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| Deer at St. Francois State Park. These two are in the "safe zone" since there is no hunting allowed in this State Park. Gun season had just opened and we heard several shots. We saw this pair a couple times. Smart mom. |
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| Mike and Julie visited 11/11 and stayed for dinner. Our first guests. |
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| Jim and Jan also came down to see our new house on 11/13. We decided to go out for lunch in Farmington. |
Jump Land Spring up
Sorry but I got nothing for the above photos. Bob said he was just playing with the timer on the camera. Seems to have worked out. As I always say, "Timing is everything."
Our next stop was back home to Ohio. On Thursday, 11/16, we visited our former neighbors, Tony and Ann. All of us went to the local pizza place, Enrico's, which is right around the corner from our neighborhood. Bob and I jumped at the chance for another Enrico's pizza since we had tried many different shops in Sioux Falls and all had failed to provide a good pie. We like a thin, crispy crust and seasoned sauce. Over three months without our Friday pizza except for Bob's homemade pizza. And his is good. But sometimes we just want to go out for one.
While most readers here would say our travels have been something to envy, there is a dark side. Family left far away and no way of quickly being available if needed. Friday, 11/17, was suppose to be our restocking shopping day. Our day started a little earlier than we expected when my sister called at 6:30am. My mother has been in a skilled nursing facility for awhile called Barkley Friends. We were horrified to hear that the Assisted Living and Memory Care units had burned to the ground. Many of you may have seen the news reports of the facility in West Chester, PA. All the residents have been transferred to other local facilities. So while my mother is safe, she is confused about where she is and why she had to leave her Barkley room. The stress and concern for her safety fell to my sister and her husband who live near West Chester. And while the staff at the new facility have been wonderful, there are concerns. All of mom's clothes and personal items were left. She had one pair of pajamas and one pair of shoes.
The feeling of helplessness made focusing on our tasks difficult. Getting and forwarding updates to family members was time consuming. I felt it was very unfair for my sister and her husband to have to shoulder this emergency along with the regular issues that have to be handled for mom's best interests. We are so grateful to have mom is such good hands.
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| Breakfast at Scrambler Marie's with another neighbor, Eddie 11/18. We were neighbors for over 20 years. I was telling her that as we were driving into the neighborhood my automatic instinct was to remember to pick up our mail. After 27 years in our Ohio home, it's an odd feeling to not be getting our mail out of the box. We also visited with our son-in-law's parents, Fred and Karen. One of the nicest things about our travels out west was the totally different weather than Ohio. Sunshine and bright blue skies are the norm while in Ohio the gray, cloud covered days are depressing. Saturday...we got 4.5 inches of rain. By the time we got back home (to the RV), many of the bow hunters were packing it in. The Delaware State Park does allow hunting within the park. Fortunately for us, only bow hunting season was open. Now we are on our way to Pennsylvania for a week. |
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