December 2012 - Summary of year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!  Today is December 27th!  Just a few more days and we will be starting a New Year, I am hoping for all my dear friends and family to have a new year filled with joy, blessings, sharing, and laughter. 
I know our niece and her husband will have a wonderful year as they are expecting our first great nephew; yes they know it is a boy!  We are all so excited and happy for them.  It's been 14 years since we have had a baby in the family. 
I thought I would do a recap of 2012; it's been a busy year.  Both our son, daughter-in-law and daughter are doing well.  Everyone is healthy, the most important thing; their lives are going forward in a positive manner with good jobs, homes, friends and a love for THE LORD.
Dave and I have made the decision to retire in 2013.  Dave's actual date is still undecided, but I am aiming for May 31, 2013.   We close on a lot outside Ames, IA, much closer to our children, just a few minutes from Dan and about 50 minutes from Mary, in January.  We haven't been near Dan in 12 years, so the potential to see him and Steph more than a few times a year is going to be wonderful.  Also, being closer to Mary will make more frequent visits so much easier. Of course, that means we will be further away from our families in the Quad-Cities by another hour, but being retired means we will have a much easier time traveling down to visit.  And with the Airstream, we can stay for as long as we want as we will have our home with us.  :)
We waited through last winter and into spring and finally on July 3 we got our refurbished Airstream!  Then we spent the rest of the summer and fall, every single weekend until the 1st of November traveling and camping.  Wow, were we busy!!! But it was so much fun.  My brother and his wife purchased a RV, a small travel trailer this spring, so we enjoyed their company on a couple weekends.  Hoping for quite a few more in 2013!!  It was a good time!  Wish we could convince other family members to join us in the RV life style. 
We had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Vermont with our dog's breeder and dear Friend, Pamela.  Pamela and I attended doggie day camp with our dogs; six between the two of us.  It was very enjoyable, though poor Pamela was going through some health issues and was quite miserable but she didn't admit to it and carried on.  After parting ways, Dave and I continued on through New York and into Ontario and back through Michigan and then home.  I would definitely like to spend more time in New York state,  it was beautiful.   Then this fall, our next big trip was to the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas and attended a Workkamper education rally.  We learned so much at this rally and with their webinars, hope to continue to learn more this next year, so we can have a better chance of finding some workkamping jobs to support our RV life style while we are on the road in the future.  We are hoping to do volunteer work with the National parks, State parks and the Fish and Wildlife associations across the US.
We had enjoyable weekend trips also, so had great use out of the Airstream even though we had a late start.  Found some little kinks in it, but Ryan got it into the his shop in November and got everything repaired.  I highly recommend RV Revive for any of your repairs!!!  Wonderful family to work with and they do an outstanding job.  If you reviewed our pictures of the Airstream that we posted this summer, you know how nice a job he does.
This week, during our shutdown from work, we are sorting old boxes and storage containers and taking items to Goodwill, pitching in the garbage or packing for long-term storage until after we get the house built, hopefully sometime next year.  
Today, I found pictures from when I worked for Colonel Groves at the Rock Island Arsenal, the program from my high school graduation, and other memories that we haven't seen in years!!! Some things made us smile, some made us sad and miss family that has passed on, and some things made us laugh and other things confirmed that we have a wonderful family.  We are so very proud of our wonderful and beautiful children.  We have been blessed.
So even though I have no posting of travel and probably won't until this coming spring, I'll try to add a few more posts to track our activities this winter in preparation of selling this house and planning for our relocation after we retire in 2013.  Guarantee we will definitely still be RVing in 2013, maybe not long trips, but exploring for short jaunts around the mid-west. 
Hope this post finds everyone, wherever you may be, warm or cold, enjoying the final days of 2012.  May God bless you and keep you!

Candy

30 November 2012 - Staying Home

Nacho and KT are laying on the couch being little couch potatoes!!  We've been home a month with no trips and I'm missing the Airstream.  We had such great trips this year, even though we started late.

No trips planned, we are busy getting ready for Christmas.  At work, I'm in charge of the fund raisers for our department's participation in the Festival of Trees and coordinating the purchasing for the three children we have adopted.  Next week will be busy with baking for the Bake Sale on Thursday.   We had one two weeks ago and had a fantastic turnout.  A good portion of the department is away at EXPO, so I hope we have plenty of baked goods donated to sell.  The way its looking, I'm going to be doing a lot of baking the next few days.

Plans are going forward to purchase the lot we have found west of Ames, just over the county line into Boone County.   Hope to close in January.   That will put us really close to our children; an hour and half closer.  Maybe we'll get to see them more frequently than every couple months. 

Now the hard part, going room to room sorting, packing and taking to storage.  Then getting the house in shape to put on the market in the spring.   I think our holiday shutdown is going to be spent packing boxes, taking items to Goodwill or putting items in the garbage or recycle.  

Planning these chores is making the act of selling the house more of a reality.   Lots of work ahead of us!!!!  Lord willing, this time next year we will be living near Boone, IA. 

2013 should be a totally new experience for us.   Retirement is coming, hopefully, and the light is at the end of the tunnel.

 Unless Obama takes control of IRAs and 401Ks, then we'll being working forever!!!!!!!   I hope Republicans and Democrats together take a stand and vote no on his proposal.  I fear things won't go the way I hope though......because people just don't have their eyes open to what is really going on in Washington.  False promises, illusions and government in control of everything is the new order.   Lies are rampant.   It's getting scarier all the time.    I really fear for our children's generation because they aren't going to have the future possibilities that we did when we were their age.   Opportunities for them are so much less than they were 30 years ago.  Things have not gotten better. 

Well, we will trust in the Lord and whatever situation HE allows, we will handle it with His wisdom and guidance and peace.

I wish for all a very joyous and blessed Christmas season.  Our family has much to be thankful for and we praise and thank Him for the blessings.

We'll check in again soon.

Peace to you,
Candy

Heading Home

Nacho and KT are too busy chewing on bully sticks to do any dictating so I'll report. :)

We finished our seminars on Thursday night so Friday and Saturday were free days.  It was so nice to be staying in one place and not having anywhere to go.  We dinked around all morning doing little chores and having a leisurely breakfast.  Dave worked on getting some flies prepared on his lines so he could go out fishing. 

So he left and I did some updating on our Workkamper resume, read some RV forums and looked at lots for sale.  In other words worked a little and played a litte.  Nacho, KT and I took about 3 long walks around the campground and just enjoyed the beautiful fall weather; it was in the low 60's, so really not bad at all.  The colors are still showing so it was a beautiful fall walk.

Here are a few pictures from the campground:



Below are pictures from our little hike along a stream that flows into the Little Red River which is just below our campsite:

Above is our Airstream as seen from the path below.  KT says "is there any fish down there?"



Saturday, after another lazy morning, we loaded up and drove to Mountain View to check out the "Folk music" and "beans and cornbread cook-off".  Which ended up us just driving through, it was crazy packed with people for a town of a population of about 2100, I'm sure there must have been twice that in tourists and visitors.  We drove about 6 miles out of down to JoJo's Catfish Wharf for a great southern meal: sweet tea, hush puppies, green tomato relish, beans, fried catfish fillets and homemade fries.  It was great, they have chocolate peanut butter pie for dessert, but we were too full to try it.

We then drove up to Mountain Home to check it out and view the beautiful scenery along the way.  Wow, talk about windy roads!!!!  Colors were beautiful.  Here is a vew from the restaurant:

We also stopped and checked out another COE near Norfolk Dam.  It was really nice!!!  We would enjoy visiting there next time.  Then it was back to the Airstream.  Driving those windy roads, at about 35 miles per hour after dark was a nerve wacking experience. 

Now we are on the road, driving home, tonight, Sunday we are stopped at a private campground in Columbia, MO.  So on the road again, up Rt. 63 towards Cedar Falls.  What a great week we have had!!!

Hugs,
Candy





Rendevous Report

Good Morning everyone, Candy reporting.

We have just completed and become certified trained Workkamper Dreamers.  Meaning when we retire in 2013 we can submit our applications at thousands of jobs across the USA and have the support of Workkamper News which will confirm to potential employers that we are dedicated, committed, hardworking, sociable and enthusiastic Workkampers.  Hopefully, getting hired at our Dream locations as volunteers.  Oregon fish hatcheries, here we come!  :)

JFK campground is so nice!!!!!!  It has spacious sites, particularly in loop D, which is where we are located.  The other loops are nice, but our loop is the nicest.  We would definitely stay here again if we travel through the area.  Today, Friday is now a free day, but it has dropped from high 70's to low 50's.  Dave is going to do some fly fishing as the area is renown for trout.

It sure was nice sleeping in until 7:30 after getting up at 6 am the last three days.   Now we can have a more leisurely 3 days before we go back to our jobs.   :(     We will start driving back on Sunday.
We may drive up tomorrow to the "Beans and cornbread" festival at Mountain Home.  They have day long music, bazaars, cook-offs and quilt and craft displays.

We have met so many wonderful couples who are "Dreaming" also.  We hope to see them again on the road.
Now it is confirmed we aren't the only crazy people. :)

I'll get some of the promised campground pictures and get them posted.  For now, signing off to enjoy a cup of coffee and a book!

Candy

Heber Springs, AR

Hi All,
We have made it to Heber Springs, AR and are staying at the John F. Kennedy Campground run by the COE on the Little Red River and Greers Ferry Lake.  Mom will get some pictures of the campground and our site.  We will post them later today. 

The drive down yesterday was just a beautiful.  More hilly, twisting roads than the previous day, but the colors are still in full display and the scenery was very enjoyable.  It is evident that the bad economy has hit in some areas and conditions are looking run down.  Branson, though seem to be in full swing and still expanding.  

This is our site, looking out the door of the Airstream.  It's pretty nice!!!

Here we are resting after our long walk.  This is really neat place!!  Squirrels, raccoons, possums, and scents galore!!!  Whoopee!!

The picture above is the nice breakfast Mom is fixing Dad.  He's so lucky!!!  He's having fried polenta!!  Or in hillbilly language fried mush!!!  Mom says yuck, but Dad says yum!

Some of the views along the drive down!

Logging is an important industry in this area of the state.

The memorial in front of the courthouse in town. 

This was a nice view as we drove by the courthouse!

View of a distance mountain (not quite the same as the Rockies, but a mountain all the same) as we drove over the bridge from Greers Ferry towards Heber Springs.

Well, that's my report from Sunday, October 21.  

Kisses, Nacho

Little Red River, Here we come

Not the best picture of me, but here I am directing Mom as we travel south to Springfield, MO, which is our first stop on our way  to the Workkamper Seminar in Heber Springs, AR.  

It was a pleasant drive today as the route Dad chose wasn't bad at all.  The colors are still good in Missouri and so that made for pleasant viewing.  You can see a bit of the colors out the window above my head. 

After un-hooking in the campground in Springfield, Mom and Dad (and us) took a drive to the Bass Pro shop to eat at the restaurant on site.  It was a HUGE place.  Mom said they had a nice restaurant and she got some nice dishes on the buffet. She said the snapping turtle swimming around in the tank was giagantic!!! 

Anyway, bedtime after a nice long walk, so we can finish our drive tomorrow.  It should only take about 4 1/2 hours and then we can enjoy the river and the COE campground by the dam.  More tomorrow with some pictures!

Night!
Nacho

Checking in

Hi all, KT reporting here as Nacho is too busy chasing leaves and being a troublemaker.  :)
We have been gone every weekend since we returned from Vermont, but no pictures to share.

21- 23 September we went "home" as Mom calls it to visit family and wish Grandpa Isaacson a Happy Birthday!  He was 80 years old on the 24th.

28 -30 September we joined good friends Steve & Patsy camping at the COE in DeSoto, WI.  Went to some apple orchards in Gays Mills and brought home more than 1/2 bushel of apples!  We love apples!

5 -7 October we celebrated Aunt Chris' 50th birthday.  Really nice party hosted by Kevin, and Nicki and Andy. The fires sure felt good!  

14 October we went over to celebrate Dan's 31st birthday, a day late.  We were supposed to camp, but the weather wasn't so great so we cancelled the camping portion.  Mom said she got to spend a day at home and get a bit caught up.

We leave this weekend on our trip to Arkansas for fishing (for Dad) and learning about what is involved to be a "workkamper".  They will have seminars on RV cooking, maintenance, taxes, best states to live in as a retiree, driving an RV, and building a resume to transfer from a normal employee to a retired employee, working to pay for your site, but leaving lots of time to play!  ( Mom's idea).

We will report in later!

KT

How we travel

Just a quick post here from Mom;

So we have been asked how we travel and why we enjoy it. 

We love traveling across the great United States.  This country is beautiful and there is so much to see.  Flying may be quicker but the beauty of the land is not appreciated.  Also, we like having our own bed, bathroom and kitchen.   Bed bugs anyone?  Not me!!!  Traveling in our 25' Airstream Tradewind, which is a restored 1974 model, allows us the convenience of stopping where and when we want, taking our sweet pups, Nacho and KT with us and having the benefits of home right there with us 24/7. 

So here are some pictures as an explanation of our travels:

As we travel and we have to stop, this is where we are required to park. 

A couple of the campsites we used this year, none of which I would say have been our favorite, but were acceptable. 

This is how KT and Nacho travel in the truck, when they are tired of riding up front with us. 

This is how Nacho likes to travel sitting next to me, helping Dave navigate.  :)

Here he's telling me, "this is where we are staying tonight, Mom". 

Nacho begging Dad to let him sit up front, he's done taking a nap!

KT showing off the kennel in the trailer. She's saying, "enough already get me out of here."

Trying to convince Dad to share his Cheerios!

Well, we hope our friends and family will continue to follow our adventures as we continue to travel to new states and explore old favorites.  

What a blessing and privilege it is to travel.  We thank the Lord for our health, finances and many blessings he has bestowed upon us.  We especially appreciate our children being understanding of our love of travel and knowing during our future retirement we may be out of state for quite a while.   We hope we have passed on to them the enjoyment we have experienced seeing our great country.

Dave and Candy, and Aussies

2nd Week of Trip

Hi All, 

Nacho here.  I'm going to give you a report of our second week of vacation.  Mom might pipe in about a few things since I didn't get to go on the boat ride or visit a castle.  Mom said to tell you if you like old houses and antiques you might like this report with lots of pictures, because her and Dad got to visit a castle on an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence Seaway.  She said it was pretty cool!

We left Stowe, VT on Saturday morning after going over to Mountaineer Inn to help Pamela re-arrange the canopy, since hers was destroyed during a rain/wind storm two days previous.  She finished grooming me so I would look handsome while Dad re-arranged her stuff under our canopy and got the x-pens moved around.   She's the greatest!!!

Anyway, after we left we drove north and crossed Lake Champlain into New York state just 1/4 mile from the Canadian border.  We then drove down along the west side of the lake and a bit west to Wilmington, NY which is about ten miles from Lake Placid.  We stayed at a KOA there.   Mom said it was pretty nice this time of year, but like many she wouldn't want to stay there when they are busy.  We had no around around us close, so it was private and quiet.  All the sites are under the pine trees so the ground is covered with pine needles.  It sure smells nice.

The next day, we drove east a bit to see the Ausable River Chasm near Keenesville, NY.  The falls and what we could see from the road and the walkway were neat, but Mom said she wasn't paying $16 per person to take a walk.  Anyway, we had a nice walk and it was pretty cool.

Then we got back in the truck and drove to Lake Placid.  Due to the time spent at the Ausable River, we were too late to see much of the Olympic sites in Lake Placid as they were closing up for the day because it was Sunday.  Mom and Dad took a tour of the skating arenas where the 80' Hockey team won.

Monday morning, after KT and I woke them up (our usual duty), they packed up and we headed northwest towards the St. Lawrence Seaway and Thousand Islands and into Canada.  We made good time and arrived about mid -afternoon at Mallorytown, Ontario.

 
After setting up (at another KOA) and taking a run around their private dog park,

 we jumped back into the truck and headed down to Rockport, Ontario where Mom and Dad had a fish dinner while KT and I took a nap.  Then they came and leashed us up and we walked around the little (very little) village of Rockport and up a hill to a Catholic church that had a nice overlook of the Thousand Islands area.  It was a nice walk and fun to bark at squirrels and greet people.

The next morning after some exercise and breakfast, we  were put in our bed and had to sleep and entertain ourselves while Dad and Mom took a five-hour boat ride and visited a castle.  From here, Mom will report:
Dave and I drove early, about 9 a.m. to Gananoque, Ontario to see if any of the boat tours of the Thousand Island area along the St. Lawrence Seaway were giving tours.  We were in luck, the one we really wanted to take, a five-hour cruise which included a two-hour stop at Bolt Castle on Heart Island was going out.  We signed up and were told we only had about a 1/2 hour wait.    Almost every island is inhabited.  During the time the area was being settle, people built their homes on the islands as the river was their main mode of transportation and employment.  Even a little island about 300 yards in diameter had a house built on it.   As you will see from the pictures, they vary in size due to the island size, number of inhabitants or the persons' income.  It was a very unusual sight and some of the houses were really impressive.

Even these birds had their own little island

The most impressive thing was the island owned by the Bolt family who co-owned the Waldorf-Astoria in NY city.  He built a castle for his beloved wife and the gardens and many features in the castle feature hearts.  She died before it was completely finished and he abandoned it.  Years later it was purchased by the Bridge Authority and over the years they have been restoring and finishing it in the manner intended by the Bolts. Two hours was not enough time to enjoy this beautiful castle and it's immaculate gardens.  And it is built on an island!!!!  Pretty neat!

The castle as viewed from the St. Lawrence

The ceiling in the entry foyer

The entry way to the island

The Power house for the island

The Castle's boat house

The circular porch surrounding the castle

The stairs in the entry foyer

Some of the bedrooms

The Ballroom

The library

One of the dozen fireplaces

2nd floor sitting room off a bedroom

Outside views of the castle

I have lots more pictures I could share of the beautiful grounds and additional rooms!!!

After getting a few groceries we returned to the AS to relax for the evening and exercise the pups.

Nacho back here reporting......Wednesday morning we woke Dad and Mom up at our usual time, about 6:30 (can't let them sleep too late or we won't get to see anything!)  They packed up and off we went again traveling across Ontario towards Lake Huron.  We wanted to stay Wednesday night at a Provincial Park, but after arriving and spending two hours driving around looking for a suitable site, (Mom and Dad were totally disgusted and it was 7:30 at night and getting dark) we gave up that idea and drove to Port Huron, MI.  We didn't get there until pretty late about 9:30 or so, but this KOA had security which after waiting for 15 minutes finally showed up and signed us  in and escorted us to our site.  Wow, it was really fancy!!!!  We had our own patio with furniture!


We didn't get to stay and enjoy it because Mom and Dad decided our next stop would be the Indiana Dunes National Lake Shore and camp at the campground there since Dad has his "senior" pass.  It was worth the drive because we had a nice site with a big area for us to play and to have a fire.  This whole campground is nestled in the trees near the Dunes and was pretty quiet the first night, which was Thursday.

Friday night a bunch of people arrived with about 20 kids and it got really noisy fast!!! We tried to keep them in line, but Mom and Dad wouldn't let us voice our opinions.  How not fair is that!! The kids could be loud but not us!!!! Friday during the day, we were lazy a bit and then we had a lunch at a truck along the highway.  It was pretty cool; it was an old truck like from the 50's rebuilt with a wood burning pizza oven.  It was called the Rolling Stone Bakers and they make really great unusual flavored pizzas.   (Dad has pictures, but Mom can't find them right now; she'll add them later).

Mom and Dad seemed to really enjoy theirs, I can't say because they didn't share.  We then went to Bass Pro, because Dad wanted to look for something for fly-fishing, his favorite thing to do.  Later we all went for a walk along Lake Michigan at the foot of the Dunes.  It was a bit of a climb up and over to the beach, but we helped encourage them along!  :)  Later we drove along the shore up to Michigan City and got some groceries.

After building a fire and just playing and being lazy around camp, they roasted some hotdogs and had some salads.  We did get to have a bit of the hotdogs, it was nice they shared.  It was a nice campground to just relax because we sure have been busy seeing the sights!

Saturday morning we loaded up and took off for our trip home.  We arrived about 5:30 p.m.  It sure is nice to be home!!! We have lots more rooms to run through than the AS.  And our yard is huge!!!!  Ah...home at last!!!!