Tennessee or BUST! (Day 5)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 - Another traveling day. We arrived in Harrogate, Tennessee, around 1 pm. We were all glad to get out of the motor home and into an air conditioned home. The motor home would not make it up the road to Kevin & Cindy Jones' home and so Cindy had arranged for us to leave the motor home and moving truck at the local park. Rick unhooked his truck from the moving truck and drove it up to his parent's home and unloaded the truck. Katie was so excited to be in her walker and able to go where she wanted when she wanted. We all relaxed and enjoyed the hospitality of Kevin and Cindy. Katie's heat rash is evident today around her ears. She has been a real trooper! Cindy had arranged for us to stay at the City park that night. It was nice and quiet with a slight breeze to cool things down. We had been in bed about an hour when we could smell a skunk. He decided to stay with us the rest of the night. So much for open windows!!!

Tennessee or BUST! (Day 4)

Monday, June 22, 2009 - St. Louis Gateway Arch was our first stop of the day. We arrived about 9 am. The first incident was when we were trying to find parking and found we had to make a U-turn with the motor home and the trailer we were pulling. The trailer jack-knifed and cut the fiberglass on the motor home, but we were able to get turned and parked without any further damage. The arch is really neat to see. While we were in the top of the arch, we were able to see the river below and noticed that the "parking" areas were all under water from all of the flooding that has been taking place. No wonder we couldn't find parking! We spent over an hour site seeing and then got on our way. Our goal for today was Louisville or Lexington, Kentucky, and to stop early enough to enjoy the evening. The drive was uneventful except for the heat and humidity through Kentucky. The landscape is very green and lush. Today I put Katie in front of the passenger seat on the floor to play so she could take advantage of the AC. She played for a long time and then seemed to be tired so I put her in her car seat, but then she was upset because she was hot. I finally put her in her car seat on the floor with one vent of the AC blowing on her. She ate and played there for several hours. We called Rick's dad and got the name, address, phone number, and cost for staying at the Kentucky Horse Farm RV park. We decided that we would stay there and so went to Lexington. The GPS took us on a scenic farm detour to get us to the horse park. It was really pretty. We arrived about 7 pm and got set up. This was a very nice RV park. We fixed supper and then Rick, Holly, Katie, Amy, and Ken went swimming. After that we all cleaned up and relaxed. Katie was so excited to be out of a car seat, the motor home, and not hot. However, we noticed that she has a heat rash from all the humidity and heat. Another day and we will be in Harrogate. NO WALMART PARKING TONIGHT! Hurray!!

Tennessee or BUST! (Day 3)

SUNDAY - June 21, 2009. Another early start to our day. This is our day to tour LDS Church history sites. We drove to Cameron, Missouri, and parked in the Walmart parking lot there. Mom, Rick, Holly, Katie, and Amy took the BMW and went to Adam-ondi-ahman and Far West while Dad, Ken, and myself stayed with the vehicles. The day was nice, but muggy. It got warmer as the day went along. Today we had the generator going running the AC and it really helped. We had planned on visiting with Ron and Nadene today, but with all of the delays, that was not working out. I talked with Nadene and explained some of what had happened. I felt bad that we were not able to get with them. After the rest of the group returned from their site seeing, we headed for Liberty Jail. We enjoyed the tour and the chance to visit the jail. We loaded up and headed for Independence, Missouri. On the way, we were trying to get Katie to sleep and so left the generator running with the AC going. Well, about half way to Independence the generator quit and would not restart. Not good! Once we got to Independence, I wanted to visit the Church of Christ Temple. I have been to Independence three times and still had not seen inside. We went there first and learned that they would be closing in 30 minutes. So, we took a quicky tour. It was interesting. Then we all went over to the LDS Visitor's Center in Independence and again took a quicky tour. The feeling between both places was noticable. We were soon again on the road and headed for St. Louis. Holly had told me that she wanted to get as close to St. Louis as possible Sunday night. We made to within 40 miles of St. Louis when we again stopped at a Walmart for the night. We are getting good at the Walmart tour! The humidity has been absolutely horrid! We are dripping wet and can't cool down. Today, I took Katie out of her car seat for part of the drive to St. Louis and let her stand next to the window. She was dripping wet from being in her car seat. The only time she gets upset is when she is thirsty, hungry, or too hot. She isn't eating a whole lot, but drinking everything we give her. She is so good!

Tennessee or BUST!! (Day 2)

June 20, 2009. Saturday. My dad does not sleep!! At 5:45 am he was trying to get out the door of the motor home because he couldn't sleep. This meant that everyone else was soon up and we headed for the Cabella's National Headquarters in Sydney, Nebraska, where we fixed breakfast and checked out Cabella's. Going to bed late and getting up early and traveling gives me a headache! Katie was not too happy about the early hours and traveling, but she did go back to sleep after an hour and slept for two. She was much happier after having pancakes for breakfast. She loved being able to be in her car seat belted in and still see out the window. The worst was the humidity we encountered. She would sweat so bad when she slept that her hair was dripping wet. We tried everything to cool her off and finally found that a rice ice pack seemed to work the best. We travelled towards Lincoln, Nebraska, and the GPS did a great job until we hit a detour and the GPS "freaked" and led us into the streets of Lincoln to get us back where we needed to go because we had "missed" our turn. After winding through the streets of Lincoln around the detour, we were finally headed towards Missouri. We decided that the best place to stop was at St. Joseph, Missouri, as it was closest to the LDS Church sites we wanted to visit. It was coming up 7 pm when we called an RV park in St. Joseph to see if they had any openings. Their recording said they did. We arrived around 8:30 p.m. and found that the park was full (there was one open space but it had carpet down.) While deciding what to do, Rick checked on his tow bar and found a major problem - one of the "hinges" had completely broken off and so he was pulling it by one hinge. So, we found the closest Walmart and Ken, Dad, and Rick worked on the tow bar until after midnight. Another late night! Staying in the Walmart parking lots are free, but we seemed to spend more money shopping than we would have staying at an RV park. However, Walmart also had what was needed to fix the tow bar! Katie did very well traveling today. She liked the attention of having someone ride next to her while she was in her car seat and facing a window she could see out of. She also like the breeze from the window blowing on her. She still got hot, but didn't complain. She has been a great little traveler.

Tennessee or BUST!! (Day 1)

June 18, 2009 - We have planned for six months to help move Holly, Rick, and Katie to Tennessee. Ken purchased a 1994 Ford Fleetwood Pace Arrow, Class A, 33 1/2 ft motor home for the trip. We had repaired a couple of the problems we knew about and were excited to get on the way. However, things did not start out very well. Mom and dad came over about 10 am (the time we had indicated that we wanted to leave by) and mom's ankle and leg were swollen and had all the signs and symptoms of having a blood clot in her leg. We finally convinced her to head for the ER while we finished getting things ready. No blood clot, just stressed out leg and ankle from working on the cabin! They were gone a little over an hour and Rick and Ken were still getting Rick's truck's drive train disconnected and stowed. We were finally on our way around Noon. Everything was going great. The vehicles were all functioning great and we were making good time, despite the heavy loads we were pulling. Nine miles outside of Green River we heard what sounded like an explosion followed by a thumping sound. Ken pulled over and we got out to look. We had a blown tire (inside) and the wheel well panel was missing. Rick and my dad were running back down the road to retrieve it. We were 9 miles from Green River, but 19 miles from the closest tire shop and it was 4:00 p.m. with Big O closing at 6. We headed out and hadn't gone much more than 12 miles when we ran into construction and stopped to let traffic go by us. That was when Rick discovered that he had a problem with the tow bar he was using to pull his pickup. Ken and Rick wired everything back together and we were on our way again. It was slow, but we made it to Rock Springs Big O Tire at 5:30 p.m. They had one tire that would fit and enough time to put it on before they closed. Rick was able to fix his tow bar at the same time. We did learn that the tire had done additional damage when it blew - it cut all of the wiring that ran through the tire wheel well to the rear of the motor home. We had electrical tape and Ken taped everything back together. By 6:15 we were back on the road and decided to drive as far as we could before stopping. We were only about 5 miles outside of Rock Springs when Mom radioed asking where the paperwork was for Holly's car as they were being pulled over. We all were wondering what was happening because we were 10 miles under the speed limit and everything else was legal. The officer stopped them because there was no license plate on the front of the BMW and in Utah we are required to have a front plate. Dad explained that the car was his granddaughter's and he was driving it to help them move to Tennessee. They were given a "This is not a citation" and soon joined us. We found another problem about 40 miles west of Laramie when Ken turned his lights on to drive. He lost his speedometer as well as all of his lights on the dashboard and his tail lights. Blinkers, brake lights, and running lights all worked. Great - something else going wrong! We made it to the Walmart in Laramie, Wyoming, around 11:30 that night. We were shooting for Sydney, Nebraska, but only made it to Laramie with all of our challenges. The most positive was the fact that Katie had a good time and did not have to be in a car seat the whole way. She could get out and play every time we stopped and when she was hungry we could feed her without stopping, and when she needed a diaper change, we could do that without stopping either. Walmart is noisy at night and has bright lights!! Tomorrow has to be better!

Another couple of months gone and I'm writing again. I'm NOT very good at keeping a journal, as you can tell. Well, several things have happened since I last wrote. Lee graduated from Utah Valley University on May 1st. We went for his convocation (where he actually received his degree) and then left. President Monson was the speaker for commencement, but Holly, Katie, Sarah, Josh, Mom, and myself were headed for Cedar City as soon as possible and we still needed to get Dad's truck and get everyone loaded. We left about 1 pm. As we were getting ready to leave, Ken was getting ready to head to American Fork to purchase an RV we found. The trip to Cedar City was for Holly's brother-in-law's graduation and to move Amy home for the summer. Mom also wanted to go and visit her brothers who live in St. George.

Once we got to Cedar City, mom called her brother Bob to see if we could come and visit them on Saturday. It turned out that Bob and Sandy were going to be in Cedar City attending Sandy's grandson's graduation on Saturday and so we arranged to leave immediately and visit with them. We didn't get back until after 10:30. It was a very busy day.

On Saturday we went to visit with Dee & Linda in St. George. We had a really good visit and again hurried back to Cedar City to meet with the girls for graduation activities and to finish packing Amy up. Sunday we loaded up the truck, said farewell to the Jones family members, and headed for home. Everything was going well until just about Mona when the front passenger tire blew. Holly was driving and did a good job getting us onto the edge of the road. We called Ken and Dad to come and rescue us as we could not get the tire off from the bottom of the truck. It took about an hour and then we were back on the road. It was good to get home!

I had the opportunity to speak on Mother's Day in Church. That was a unique experience as I was given the topic of "The Lord blesses mother's when they do what they are supposed to do." I was the last speaker and spoke about some of the challenges I had faced since being a mother and the blessings I have received while facing the challenges. I was supposed to have taken 10 minutes and ended up taking closer to 20 minutes and had everyone in tears.

I am playing the organ at the Provo temple every-other Friday late afternoon and that has turned out to be a blessing. My roommate Trudy from college also works the same shift. I had not heard from or about her for two years and ran into her at the temple. We now talk every time I see her. It is great to renew that friendship. I'm also get more relaxed at playing and not making near as many mistakes.

For Memorial Day, we took our new motorhome and went out to "Joy" on the west desert. We have not been since May 1997. We learned about how things worked in the motorhome and had a really good time. We convinced Ken's mom to go with us and that made it even better. We borrowed my dad's four wheelers and took them along with our four wheeler. Even the weather cooperated until we were ready to come home. I think Rick and Holly had a good time and Katie seemed to adjust to camping very well. Amy had a good time as well.
I've not done very well on my diet. I did great for the first week and then it all went downhill. I have not lost any additional weight, but I've been able to maintain. The exercise has helped to keep things tightened up. That has been great!

Yesterday was a first - I had a rootcanal done. The Endocrinologist said that it was terribly infected, but everything went well. I hate have anesthesia of any form. It sure wipes me out. I really didn't feel the pain, but have noticed today that it is a little sore. I am on antibiotics, anti-inflamatories, and pain pills for the next week. I'll see how things are after that.

Hunting for a motor home is getting to be a time consuming event. Criteria: Age: 1990 - 2000, Class A, 30 - 35 ft, Engine: Ford or Diesel, Mileage: less than 40,000, Price: Less than $15,000, Condition: No lived in, not smoked in, no water damage.

Replacing front porch and walk takes work! Need good weather as well. Snow is not helpful!

Lee announced he is graduating from Utah Valley University (UVU) on May 1st with a Bachelor Degree in Sociology. Way to go LEE!!! He also told us he was on the Dean's list last semester. That is awesome.

Back on my diet, but today was an extremely bad day. Had a headache due to my sugar levels being slightly elevated. Ate more than I should have (all carbs) to counteract the headache after nothing else worked. No more headache but I am sure the weight will be up tomorrow. Oh, well! I have lost 6.5 pounds since Sunday. My goal is to lose 30 pounds by the end of June. Oral administration is easier than shots, but I can't decide if the weight loss is better or not. My hunger levels are better. Now it is just the psychological part I have to work on. It is really difficult to have nuts, candy, chips, fries, shakes, etc being eaten by those around me and not being able to have any. I really hope that I will eventually be able to keep the weight off and still eat the good stuff sometime in the future.

This might be a good forum to report how I am doing on the diet. Today I have had: 2 cookies, 3 whole wheat rolls, chicken breast (3.5 oz), and steamed onions (1/8 cup), taste of artichoke dip, taste of spinach quiche, taste of guacamole, 2 cashew halves, 3 macadamia nut pieces and 48 ounces water. Best weight loss day this week I ate: 9 shrimp, 1 cup diced bell peppers (red, green & yellow), 3 oz pan fried flounder, 1 cup sliced celery, 1 melba toast, 6 strawberries, 64 ounces water with lemon slices.