May 31: Visit to Linda and Nancy

On Tuesday we took a trip to Bonne Terre, MO to visit our friends Linda and Nancy.  Bonne Terre is about an hour and a half drive from STL. They have a very lovely home on a lake.  We took a ride on the pontoon as soon as we arrived.  And then Linda prepared this absolutely magnificient dinner.  We had a great time !!!

Linda, Nancy and LuLu

Barb and Nancy had a great time nibbling and talking.



Linda loves to prepare wonderful bar b que.                And Nancy prepares the salad.

 ISN'T THIS AN IMPRESSIVE TABLE SETTING !!!!

May 28-30 Bredehoft Reunion

This weekend the Bredehofts (that's Barb's family) celebrated the arrival and baptism of a new baby. Barb's nephew, Joe, and his wife, Erica, brought Brigitta into the family. On Saturday we all gathered at Elsie's residence. Joe and Erica brought Brigitta for all of us to see and for her to meet all of us.

Great Grandma Elsie sees Brigitta for the first time

Brigitta's parents, grandparents and Elsie

 Great Grandma Elsie is so pleased to hold her first great grand daughter.
 It was really heartwarming to see her eyes light up each time she viewed Brigitta.

May 27: Getting Together with Friends and Family

Friday was a big day for eating out. 

First we had lunch with our close friends from University City High School where we used to work.  It was so great to see them.

Back row:  BC, Tony, Carolyn.  Front row:  Ellinder, Linda, Charlie, Barb

Then in the evening we had diner with Barb's family.

Barb, Linda, Mark, Bev, Adena, Dave

We just have a couple of more weeks here, the weather is improving and we are beginning to get out to see friends and family.  Hooray !!!

Love and hugs,

Barb and Linda



Photos of Where We Have Been the Past Month

 We have been here in St. Louis for a month now and I know that you are wondering what we have been doing and where we have gone during this time.  I thought I would just show you photos of the great places we have visited.  Some of them have been on our visiting list many, many times.

Breeze Park where Elsie lives--Barb goes here most every day

Barb got new glasses.  We made several trips to get exam and select frames.



Store is just minutes from RV park and sales were good.

We are Costonians....we go here every other day

Sometimes we will eat lunch out..

More tools, screws, and whatevers

Grocery store--must have food

Never can have too many tools

Barb got real glasses; I got cheap readers

And of course , Walmart, a definite must go !

And so you see , we have had a great time and many exciting adventures.

Love to all of you,
Barb and Linda

More Rainy Days, 2 Days of Sun and a Day in the Waiting Room

The topic of this post more or less summarizes this week for us.  We spent the days running errands, doing small repairs and cleaning on the motorhome including cleaning the carpets and visiting Elsie. 

We did have an appointment to get the last of the repairs on the motorhome before the extended service contract expires in August.  So we arrived at 8:30 am with a list of 13 items for them to work on and sat in the waiting room with our books, laptops, coffee, lunch. We were there until 5:30 pm.  Bailey was thrilled to have a whole day with us but was not too thrilled to be couped up in one room.  And of course it rained most of the day so we could not take him for walks.  Twelve of the thirteen items were finished.  The washer/dryer had to be removed. We left it there until the new motor arrives and it is completely repaired.

The forecast is for rain again all weekend, but.hopefully there will be just enough sunshine this weekend so we can go strolling in Old St. Charles.  IF so,  we may have some photos to post.

Safe travels,
Barb, Linda and Bailey

Another Rainy Day

We have been here in St. Louis for 3 weeks now.  We have seen the sun on 3 of those days.  We have had a tornado, thunderstorms, heavy rain, hail, light rain and for the last two days continuous showers with possible thundershowers.   The temperature has dropped from 82 degrees to 52 degrees.  We are now wearing turtlenecks, sweatshirts and jeans.  The forecast is 4 more days of rain. 

No outings, no siteseeing, no walks, no pretty drives, and nothing new to write about.

This is just an update to let you know where we are and what we are doing. 

Photo of Rv park where we are staying in St. Louis.  As you can see we are right on the Missouri River which fortunately is not flooding.  We are on the back row that looks out on the trees.  The straight long white line between the rv park and the trees is the walking path that we take when the weather is nice.  We usually walk about 1 1/2 miles.

Love, hugs and safe travels whereever you go,

Barb and Linda

A day at the Botanical Gardens


 

Tuesday was a beautiful sunny day, the first in over a week and we were ready for an outing.  Spring in St. Louis is usually a time of flowers and beautiful plants.  And the MO Botanical Gardens is an exceptional place to go and one of our favorite outings.  Many of the spring blooms survived the rains and were gloriously colorful.



Reflection Pond





Peony





Tulips



Tulips




One of the Chuhuly exhibits

 




Statue from African Family exhibit



Family Weekend

Last Saturday was the Mother Daughter Tea at Breeze Park where Elsie, Barb's mom, lives.  This is an annual event usually held on the Saturday before Mother's Day.  It is a lovely affair with fancy cakes and candies plus tea or coffee.  The entertainment this year was a tenor and soprano who sang classic love songs from the 40's era as well as love songs from various Broadway shows.  So Barb and I dressed up (no long dresses and red hats), picked up Elsie at her place and off we went to the tea.  Elsie truely enjoyed the outing and in fact hummed or sang along with some of the tunes.

After the event was over, there was a drawing for the center piece for each table.  And Elsie won the drawing for our table.










And then on Sunday we went to visit Joey and Erica, Barb's nephew and niece, and their new baby Brigitta.  She is about a month old now and just adorable.  We had a very nice time seeing them and catching up with their lives.

Oh, and that is Buster in Joey's arms.  He is adjusting very nicely to having a new baby in the house.  After all, he was the only baby for over a year.

Love to all of you,
Barb and Linda

Tornado in St. Louis, April 2011

Well, here we are in St. Louis and boy did we  experience weather. Yesterday evening we could tell severe storms were coming in.  So we turned on local St. Louis news weather radar tracking and discovered we were about 5 miles north of where the tornado tracking was indicating the tornado would touch down.   We  spent the hour watching as it approached our area.   

Barb sat huddled on the sofa keeping Bailey comforted and I sat in the front window trying to get a photo on the lightening strikes.  I just was not quick enough to get the lightening, but I did get the black cloud coming in the storms.

  We debated going to bath house but decided we were not in the immediate tracking of tornado.  We did have heavy rain, hail , winds, and a bit of a scare.  But we were safe.

  It did terrible devastating damage to many homes in area plus the airport which is shut down for at least 2-3 days.

Thanks to all of you for checking on us. We are safe......just waiting to see if new
storm coming in tonight will be as bad..............

Our Weather Adjustments in St. Louis

When we arrive here we were wearing sweatshirts since the temp along the whole route was in the 50's.  As soon as we stepped out of the rig at the rv park here in St. Charles, we started sweating.  We were back to 80+ degrees and high humidity.  Off came the sweats and on with the shorts.

However it is just like St. Louis.....that night the temp dropped to 40 degrees, with day temp in the 50's.  Then the storms came in...heavy wind, hail and rain.  Yesterday was sunny but cold, 50 degrees.   Today it is warmer, in the 60's - 70's with rain, thunderstorms, hail , high winds forecast for the next 4 days.

   

Every day is something different with the weather.  We are adjusting !!!

We are in St. Louis

We arrived in St. Louis yesterday afternoon just ahead of the storms.  As I have done in the past, we had the radar active on weather.com and watched where the rain and storms were.  Our goal was to stay ahead of the storms.  All breaks were quick.  Fortunately for us, the heavy thunderstorms were to the north and south of us; our path along I-70 was just between each storm. 

That night around 6:00 pm the storms did hit us.  We had heavy rain, lightening and hail.  But we were safe and sound parked at the campground.

 This will be our home for the next month.  We will be visiting Barb's mom as well as seeing friends we have not seen for a year or more.  Barb's mom is doing well and seems to be improving daily.  That is very good news.

I will keep you updated as to her progress and our activities here.

Love and hugs,
Linda and Barb

A Visit to the Wichita Zoo

We only had one day to stay in Wichita and visit with Susan, Peter, Nicolas, and Caroline.  Barb and I took Nicolas and Caroline to our motorhome for a bit for them to see it again.  I think as they have gotten older, the idea of traveling in a motorhome has become more interesting and they had many questions about it.  We also spent part of the time talking about other visits we have had with them.

We then returned to their home to get Susan and Peter and we all went to the zoo.  Caroline was the only one who had been there, so she took us on a guided tour.  The day was sunny and warm and great for walking around and taking photos.

We made it to Wichita

Since it was well over 300 miles from Dalhart to Wichita, the plan was to drive 250 miles, stay overnight in some small town and then drive the last 65 miles the next day.  But when we reached the 250 mile limit, we were not tired and just drove on.  So this was our record.......315 miles.



On Sunday we  drove over to the kids house and I got to experiment with my portrait photography skills.  The kids had a great time posing and getting into silly positions. 

Nicolas and Caroline having fun.  I do not know how she managed to hold him

 I think this one may make a good portrait.

Stalled in Dalhart, TX

Our plan to drive another 250 miles today was shot down by mother nature.  The further north we drove on Hwy 54 towards Wichita, the windier it got.  When I decided to check the weather on the phone, I discovered that the wind was at 30-40 mph where we were and that the further north we went , the stronger the wind gusts.  In fact, if we had driven to our day's destination, the wind there was to be 60 mph wind with gusts to 75. 

We pulled over on the side of the road in Dalhart, TX to figure out what to do.  We were at the point of finding a motel in town with a big parking lot and just checking in for the night.  And then luck was with us, as we drove to the motel, there right in front of us was a rv park.  We pulled in and got full hookups for $19/night.  Wow, were we thrilled. 

Love and hugs to all of you,
Linda and Barb

April 2011: We are On the Road Again

Good bye Arizona

We left Apache Junction about a week ago and are heading to St. Louis. Barb's mom was in the hospital several weeks ago with pneumonia in both of her lungs. Barb spent the 10 days in St. Louis with her mom while she was in the hospital; Mark came the day before she went home to Breeze Park. He stayed another week or so to be with her while she was recuperating. Fortunately, she is recuperating very well and seems to be getting better every day.

As a result, Barb and I decided that we wanted to be with Elsie for at least two months this summer. So we are heading east. Since our goal is to reach St. Louis rather than just travel at a leisurely pace, we are covering about 250 miles per day. That is a monumental distance for us.  We are currently in Santa Rosa, NM for a day of rest. Santa Rosa is experience severe weather of winds up to 50 mph and wind gusts of 70 mph.  We thought this would be a good day not to drive.

 Our plan is to go through Wichita where my daughter Susan and her family are living. We will spend a day with them and then head on. We should be in St. Louis by mid next week.

I again hope to keep this blog up to date with at least weekly updates of how Elsie is doing as well as updates as to what we are doing.

Thanks to all of you who have encouraged me to continue with this blog. We love that you are following our adventures of full time Rv'ing.

Linda and Barb

November 2010 thru March 2011 Highlights

We were not back in Apache Junction more than a few weeks and we started traveling. We spent ten days traveling to San Antonio to see Linda's kids (Robyn, Scott, Zachary and Ashley).

Barb and Zack building a Legos police station.

Ashley showing off her Build A Bear

Then at the end of December we left for Las Vegas for 6 weeks in our motorhome. We traveled with friends (Co,Flo, Cheryl, and Pearl). The highlights of that trip were the limosine ride to the Strip on New Year's Eve and then the Cher concert.

Holiday lights at Ethel M Chocolate Factory

We had a birthday party for Bailey, Luey, Blanche and Lucy. We had hats and presents and a great celebration for all of our four legged kids.

We returned to Apache Junction mid February and immediately became involved in all of the activities of the RV park.  The winter season (November through March) is always active and we are kept busy visiting with friends.

A highlight of the season was the birth of a baby Great Horned Owls in a neighboring park. There were three babies; mom and dad were always nearby.  This photo  is dad sitting in a nearby tree just watching all of us and being sure we were not going to disturb his family.  And below is the three babies...the one in front seems to be the largest of the three and was sitting up high in the nest.  The other two were sitting lower and hiding on either side of her.

Love and hugs to all of you who are reading this blog and following our adventures.  We are so glad to be sharing our life with you. And love hearing from you via comments on this blog or via e-mail.

Barb and Linda and Bailey