Movin' On to Cape Girardeau, MO

Wednesday, April 28, I'm up at 7:30. It is sunny and chilly at 49 degrees. We pack up quickly and leave at 10:08. It is warmer already today as winds are calm out of the south. We head north on I-55 for 30 minutes before we have to take the roller coaster ride around the west side of Memphis through some wild road construction. We got the thrill of a loop de loop curly-cue ramp on I-55, crossed the Mississippi River and found the correct lane to go north on I-55. But not before our hearts jumped in our throats a few time. Whew!

The map lied about a rest area in Arkansas on I-55. We pass our campground in Arkansas across the River from Memphis where we stayed in The Beauty-it's now a KOA. The Welcome Center at the Missouri border is closed too. They promise a new one in 20 miles that turns out to be 45 more miles. So we go 140 miles of our 202-mile trip before we have a break and we need one. We eat our PBJs and grapes at the rest area and head north for 60 more miles to exit 99 and Cape Camping & RV Park, 1900 N. Kingshighway, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701, Cape Girardeau County (573) 332-8888, N37* 2.022, W89* 34.656.

A workcamper guy out front admires our RV. We were here in the Lakota five or six years ago. I'll have to look up the year. The RV Park was only a few months old at that time. It is much nicer now with grass instead of mud. All of the sites and facilities are completed and we have Wi-Fi at all of the sites. We pay $204.07/week ($15.07 tax!) We are in Site A-9, 2 or 3 sites down from our first time here in the same row.

We jockey the RV so the steps are on gravel (someone left us a nice door mat!) and the utilities all reach (we think.) Last time we had to re-hitch as the electric cord missed by two inches (we were rookies then.) This time we didn't realize we have cable TV at this park and the box is way on the end. Bob got rid of his faulty 50-foot cable so we only have 10 feet and missed by 4 inches. We'll get a new longer cable at Wal-Mart later.

By 2:45 we are set up. We head south to exit 96 and enjoy the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday's. Then we stop at Wal-Mart for essentials and a 12-foot cable. Good old Wal-Mart. Back home Bob hooks it up. We put the bikes in the garage, I hang up my decor and we crash. It's 6:02 p.m. and 68 degrees with 25% humidity. The high was 77 and the low was 49. Let the wedding festivities begin!

Easter Brunch in Slidell, LA

Reet wears Marilynn's Tiger Eye necklace and earrings for Easter

Sunday, April 4, I didn't get up until 9:00 and then I just lounged the morning away. We got cleaned up and dressed for brunch at Ruby Tuesday's. I wore my friend Marilynn's Tiger Eye necklace and earrings! I just love them.

We had the four-course brunch:

--Yogurt Parfait with granola and raspberry sauce
--Salmon Benedict and 3-way Benedict; steak, crab and chicken
--cheesy biscuits
--chocolate chip cookies

There was not a very big crowd as almost every local restaurant is having a huge buffet brunch for Easter. We chose this one because it was only four choices. Some of them had 75 Cajun entrees and sides. That seemed like it would negate all of our cycling. This was a great brunch. My only complaint was they didn't give us a chocolate bunny!

We went home with the Sunday paper. I work on my Earthlink journal pages and finally post our Feb. 2009 cruise! Better late than never. Then I spend a few hours figuring out Good Sam's Homepage site and individual travel journal sites where I'm building my new archives.

Finally I read the paper and we enjoy the 4-bean turkey soup Bob made yesterday. I clean up the dishes and go for a walk. I call Mom and Dad. They had Easter at Dane and Lori's yesterday. My brother Eric from North Carolina was there and my two nephews with their wives were also there; Nathaniel and Maria and Jason and Mary. Dad said Jason and Mary stopped by today for a couple of hours before they left town. It's nice to have Jason back in the States after his working stint abroad last year.

Bob and I watch Sharpe's Peril on PBS which was fun after reading the whole series recently. It's 10:10 p.m. and 68 degrees with 75% humidity. The high was 76 and the low was 64.

Stand Up and Be Counted!

Thursday, April 1, I have no idea where March went! In spite of our long cycle I couldn't sleep last night. Woke up at 8:15 on a board. Whatever is blooming, tree pollen probably, has my sinuses running. I take a walk anyway after a light breakfast and come home to stretch.

Right after I get back there's a knock on the door. It's a young gal working for the Census. She takes all of our information and Voila! we are counted! Our Escapee RV mail-forwarding service had first informed us that a census form would be mailed to us and we would need to comply with a quick turn around. Then the feds informed them it was not to work that way but we heard no more about it. I asked this gal and she said she was hired to go door-to-door at 3 or 4 RV Parks and marinas in the area. People are to be counted 'where they are' if they have no permanent home. So even though we have a permanent address in Texas, if we don't physically live in that spot, we get counted where we are when the census is taken. On the Census form we are called "People staying here on April 1,2010 who have no permanent place to live." Interesting.

I work on journal pages for a bit. Around 1:00 Bob and I go to Ruby Tuesday's to enjoy their salad bar. Then we cruise up and down Gause to scope out beauty shops as my hair is getting critical. Finally we stop at Rouse's, a great grocery up here that reminds me of the old Simon-David in Austin. We find Yellow Tail wine for $5.99 a bottle. And we buy seasoned chicken thighs for $0.98/lb. They'll work good in my Chicken Broccoli Soup that my Dad loves so much.

I cut up Ponchatoula strawberries. They are in season right now, very inexpensive and so tasty. They are sold on almost every street corner here. We got ours at Rouse's. It's 5:49 p.m. and 73 degrees with 46% humidity. The high was 74 after a low of 56.

Spring Cleaning in Louisiana

Sunday, March 28, I'm up at 7:30 on a board. After breakfast, walk and a stretch we begin a whole-house cleaning including windows and sills. Bob defrosts the freezer which can really ice up in humidity like we had on the Texas Coast. Afterwards we clean ourselves up and go to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch so we can use our on-line half price entree coupon. We're kind of bummed you can get all of the chicken, ribs or steak entrees but no fish. An extended family seems to be having a baby christening celebration in the restaurant. A cute little girl in a very ruffly white chiffon dress with a matching bonnet is the center of attention.

After our chicken dinners we go home to read the paper. As we left the parking lot I snapped a picture of the car at the stoplight next to us. 'Who Dat' fever is still in full force here since the Saints won the Super Bowl. I take a walk and call my sister-in-law, Linda, to see how she liked her recent trip to Ireland. Sounds like the weather was great and she declared Killarney to be her favorite. It was nice to chat with her.

It's 7:25 p.m. and 64 degrees with 31% humidity. The high was 71 and the low was 62. This evening I try to call my friend Glenda in Elgin, TX, several times. She finally calls me back but my phone is charging in the bedroom and I didn't hear it ring. At last I call her and she says she was hobnobbing with the Pine Cone Lane bunch in Cedar Hills, our old neighborhood. Mike smoked a turkey and they all enjoyed it at Joyce and Dan's. Bill and Joanne were there too. Sure would have liked to join them.

I also talked to Marilynn this evening. All is well with her. She had a great day riding her horse, Cory, in this springlike weather. And I talked to Billie. Bud has been back from Sudan for a week. They are in Albuquerque for a bit longer while they get their truck worked on. Sounds like all is well. She was thinking of me too as they are in the RV Park in Albuquerque where we met them. Can it really be three years ago now?

Cycle 20 Miles in Some Rain

Saturday, March 20, I'm up at 6:30 after crashing at 10:30 last night. Cycling makes me tired. This morning I'm reading The Big Sleep. Then I check email and discover Tom and Shirley, our Iowa RV friends, are first-time grandparents! Congratulations on little Carter who made is appearance yesterday and weighed in around 7 lbs. What a cutie!

We have a light breakfast and I take a walk. A younger gal is going around and around in the opposite direction that I am. She has earphones on barely says hi as we pass. How sad. We could be walking together. The Shelties two sites over with clipped vocal cords are rasping at me. That's sad too. It is sunny and warmer with a low of 57 degrees. The high only gets to 67 as it clouds up and gets windy. A front is predicted tonight.

I go home to stretch and work on journal pages. We leave for lunch around 12:00 and head to Ruby Tuesday's to use our $4.00 coupon we got last time for the salad bar and Crab Cake minis. We like them better than the salmon minis. Traffic is a nightmare; Spring Break I guess. We head to Tammany Trace Trail. About 1:14 we shove off and go west for 10 miles. There are lots of Saturday riders.

On the way back, just as we turn around it starts raining. It never comes down too hard but we are cycling right into the wind so we get pretty wet on the front. I put on a jacket and put my camera in a plastic bag. Bob puts his long sleeved shirt back on. I run out of gas on the way back. I'm flagging way behind and feel like I'm dehydrated again. A swig of Gatorade helps. I'm going to have to figure out why this keeps happening. This is the first time I've cycled this hard AND tried to limit my calorie intake for the day. I may have to rethink this. Usually when we cycle hard I just use it as a license to eat anything I want. At any rate, we get back to the truck in two and a half hours. The rain quit about three quarters of the way back. I saw a bunny hop across the trail.

We get the Times-Picayune at the gas station next door before we take off and head home in heavy traffic. We have to put the bikes on the back of the RV ladder since a cold front is coming in and we won't ride for a few days. We get it all put away before the rain hits here. Then we read the paper and clean up. A warm shower feels great after getting wet in the rain. We have leftovers, work the puzzles and listen to the rain as it starts up at 7:00. It's 7:46 p.m. and 62 degrees with 80% humidity.

Thermostat Warranty at Dean's RV Superstore

Thursday, November 5, I had a restless night and finally had to resort to Aleve in order to get my back to quit hurting. I'm semi-allergic to the stuff in Aleve but it beats the pain. I took a walk before breakfast and stopped in the office to borrow the Yellow Pages. We're trying to find RV parts; a thermostat and sewer connections (we lost ours as we left Edwardsville.) I'm a bit disconcerted that my morning stretch does not make my back feel better--quite the opposite in fact. After breakfast I take an aspirin specially formulated for back pain. Aspirin does not like my stomach. But I do get rid of the pain for half a day.

I take another walk to return the Yellow Pages to the office. On the way out I meet Sandy (her husband Bill is mixing architectural concrete repair mixture in the back of his truck next to their Newmar motorcoach.) They live in SE Oklahoma, Marietta, and travel for business. Bought their coach last time they were here and took a drive up to Claremore. He would like to go full-time. She doesn't know about selling their house. I meet their Llapsa, Brandy. Adopted from a family on their street who turned her out.

Don, from behind us across the road in a Wildcat 5th wheel, stopped to say he had a dog just like her that travelled with him. He's here Mondays thru Fridays as he's in his 3rd week of treatments for prostate cancer and doesn't want to drive here every day from his small town in OK.

Sandy says she works the crosswords and sudoku. Today's sudoku is a '3' but too hard for her and she usually can do harder ones. I tell her I'll see how Bob does. I head back home and Bob and I leave for lunch at Ruby Tuesdays at Memorial and 71st. Love their salad bar--and today we add mini turkey burgers.

We take Hwy 169 to 21st Street and find Dean's RV Superstore. What a friendly, customer-oriented bunch of folks. The parts guy looks up our 'fancy', as he calls it, thermostat and says it's $169. We were hoping for around $50 and were bemoaning the fact that it is under warranty but we didn't want to drag our RV in here. He says lets go talk to the service guy. So Nick takes our VIN# and says he'll contact the manufacturer after Bob tells him he checked the voltage to make sure there is power to the thermostat. This would be GREAT if we could get this covered under warranty without having to pack up and move twice.

Bob found the sewer connections and hose kit he wanted and we were out of there. We stopped at 51st and Harvard for groceries at the Food Pyramid. On the way in a guy was signing people up for Tulsa World subscriptions and asked if we wanted a free newspaper. We said "Yes, but we're from out of town." No problem; he asked where we were from and when we said Austin he asked "What is the name of the paper there?" We said American-Statesman" and a lady walking in the store turned around and said "Are you from Austin?" She has been here in Tulsa two years after 29 years in Austin and was so shocked to hear "American-Statesman." She lived near 360 and in Lakeway for a while. She knew Jester Estates where we lived. Her name was Joy and you could tell she missed Austin, but not the traffic.

We found another bargain cake in the bakery and headed home in 3:00 p.m. traffic. As we were putting groceries away, Nick from Dean's called and asked for our model and serial numbers on the thermostat. We gave him every number we could find. He called back a few minutes later and said the 'furnace serial number' was the magic one. Our part has been approved by the warranty department. It's coming from Indiana so it might be five days or so. Hallelujah!

My brother Mike called. Dad is home from the hospital. I was just going to give my folks a call. So glad he got to come home.

After reading the paper I go for another walk in the interest of improving my back. I meet Lonnie (wife Rena) from British Columbia across the road. They are here for another week. Have two children and five grandchildren in Tulsa. Are on their way to Southern California for the winter. Told him about the bike trails here. He said he drove by Turkey Mountain trailhead just today.

World Series is over, those dang Yankees won. Tonight we watch The Mentalist and Flash Forward. It's 5:38 p.m. and I can't believe how dark it is. High 80, Low 81. Right now it is 74 degrees with 36% humidity. It doesn't get any better than this. I called Mom and Dad this evening. Both seem very glad to be home. Dad said "You won't believe what I got in the mail today--an MRwhatever, you know one of those pictures of my first great grandson! He will be my first great grandson you know. Megan sent it and said we'll get to see him at Travis' wedding!" He sure sounded like a proud great grandpa to be. I tried to call Megan but had to leave a voice message.