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First Wedding on the Road – Part 2

Saturday, the day of the wedding, dawned and we headed over to the venue pretty early.  Let me start by saying I didn’t take one single picture the day of the wedding. But we did hire a great professional photographer so once those pictures come in I’ll be adding some of them.  I will also say that this entry has absolutely nothing to do with full timing or camping, so if that’s where your interests lie you may want to skip this one.

Lee and I both still had work to do to get the venue ready and we headed straight over.  Kat, Kyrston, and Stacy all worked on Kat’s makeup and hair in the morning, but Kat was generous enough to let me skip that and get straight to work.  I know that probably sounds strange as the before wedding beauty ritual is usually a big moment for the mom, but those who know me understand I rarely wear makeup, my hair is as easy to style as possible, and I really wouldn’t have had much to contribute in this area.  So thankfully my oldest daughter stepped in and they all (including my mom) had a wonderful hour of girl time.

Kyrston fixing Katy's hair

Kyrston fixing Katy’s hair

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was re checking the venue site and making my list of needed items.  Thankfully, my sister, brother, and dad were all at the Hastings Farmer’s market and were kind enough to do a last-minute Walmart run. One the big items I knew we needed was more bug spray.  The ceremony site was very buggy the day before so I had Wendy buy me four double packs of Cutter Backyard Bug Control  outdoor foggers. I give this product my highest recommendation.  At Lee’s urging we waited until right before the guests were seated and we sprayed the ground, the willow branches, darn near everything, and it totally worked.  I asked several people later in the day if they had any bug issues and everyone said no.  $40 was a small price to pay for a bug free ceremony!!

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The flowers had come in before we got there at 8:30am and this is where I made my first mistake.  Oh yes, I made several throughout the day! The kids decided to do something different with their bridal party and Kat had two girls and a guy (our youngest daughter Kay was unable to attend because she could not get time off from the Air Force and Kat chose to leave the spot open) and Micah had two guys and two girls.  So when four bouquets came in I made a quick look to make sure one was slightly bigger and that was the end of that.  Apparently I can’t count, because later in the day (unfortunately too late to do anything about it) it was discovered by the bridal party that we were missing a bouquet.  I thought three in my head, but there were actually four girls, two on Micah’s side and two on Kat’s.  I have to say though that these moments are what make me so proud of my exceptional daughter.  When she heard we were missing a bouquet, she immediately said “I didn’t want one anyway because you are both walking me down the aisle” and she gave her bouquet to one of the girls.  Jamie, one of the groom’s attendants, also immediately said she was carrying a book for the reading and didn’t need one.  This kind of mistake could have caused full-blown drama with the wrong group of women, but thankfully it was easily resolved.  I did feel bad though, so if you ever do this, please do yourself a favor and stop and actually count the flowers, corsages, and boutonnieres.  You’ll thank yourself later.

Next my helpers arrived with Jeremy and we started touching up the tables from yesterday.  Moss looks pretty cool but it is god awful messy, so we were doing a lot of blowing the little pieces back to the center to avoid smudges on the white tablecloths.  Also, one of the farm’s kittens jumped up on the head table and pulled down some moss right in front of me.  I love kittens, but after all my work I thought my head might explode and the kittens thankfully were put away for the rest of the day. Then we had to put all the flowers out, which we held off as long as we could so they would hold up in the heat, which they did.  Kat had selected a florist who works with all wildflowers and the effect with the moss was really cool.  Ivy and Jylissa our helpers were critical at this stage because it was many trips up and down the stairs bringing out the vases they had put together the day before.  Around this time Kat and Micah arrived at the venue and I should probably take a moment to show you the schedule.  We spent a lot of time as a foursome working out these details and it was based on some very specific ideas the kids had.  Kat wanted to do a “First Look” at the dress with just her, Micah, and the photographer and then she would walk around the rest of the day prior to the 5pm ceremony.  We were a little concerned it would water down the ceremony itself but it was actually fantastic and allowed us to space pictures throughout the day.  I highly recommend it.

11:00 Tracy, Lee, and Stacy help Kat get into dress (we ate quickly during this).  Linda and Jim with Micah.

12:00 “First Look” Kat and Micah, then bride and groom pictures, then bride and groom and parent pictures.

1:30 Rest of bridal party arrives; bridal party pictures

3:00 Extended family arrives – more pictures

4:00 Venue open to all guests

4:45 Shuttle bus from hotel arrives

5:00 Guests seated

5:15 Ceremony

Scheduling things out to this level might seem like overkill, but have you ever been to a wedding where the cake isn’t cut until 9pm??  This is how you avoid that happening.  By the way, putting the dress and veil on a daughter is one of the most special moments for both of us and this did not disappoint.  The venue had a beautiful room for us to use and that one on one time with your daughter before things get crazy is very special.

Bridal room

Bridal room

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Bridal room

 

Because Lee is her dad Katy got movie lights for her makeup retouch

Because Lee is her dad Katy got movie lights for her makeup retouch

In our family we use Gaffe tape for everything!!

In our family we use Gaff tape for everything including stickie bras that don’t stick  well!

 

Putting on the veil was so special

Putting on the veil was so special

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While Kat and Micah were getting their pictures taken, Lee and I got dressed, then got our pictures, then we were back to work talking to the caterers, bartenders, organizing the snack table, finalizing video camera placement, etc.  This time period is where Jeremy and Wendy were absolutely invaluable.  It’s hard to be in five places at once, and everywhere I wasn’t, either he or my sister were. Plus, Jeremy and Kyrston found the time to work out Skyping with my youngest daughter Kay,  and Jeremy carried her around via his phone during the ceremony and after for over an hour.  One of my favorite moments of the day was walking my daughter down the aisle and seeing Kay’s face on the phone as we walked past Jeremy. The three of us actually stopped the processional and said a quick “Hi” to her, and it was so special.  I was sad she couldn’t be there in person, but Jeremy’s kindness helped make her a part of the day.

Before the ceremony, Kat, Lee, and I did have some more one-on-one time as she made final preparations and then it was time to join the bridal party.  We walked up a small hill behind the tree and then Lee let the couples go one at a time carefully controlling the timing.  I was in the back when I realized I had forgotten the hand fasting ribbon which was to be used by myself and Micah’s mom Linda to tie their hands together during the ceremony.  The ribbon was about as far away as it could be (too far to run back without stopping the music) and I really started to panic.  Kat, again, wonderful in those critical moments all day, just laughed and said she felt calmer because I had made a mistake and then suggested we use the ribbon from my dress.  Thank God I had one, and we untied it and the ceremony went off without a hitch,  It really was a fun and unique ceremony as the kids had a very clear vision of what they wanted it to be and I was so happy to be a part of it.

Linda, Kat, Micah, and I during the handfasting ceremony

Linda, Kat, Micah, and I during the handfasting ceremony

 

 

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The rest of the night was dinner, speeches (which were awesome), the father/daughter dance and mother/son dance, and cake cutting, then the first shuttle arrived, most of the older folks and young kids left, and the twenty somethings really cut loose on the dance floor.  Everyone seemed to have a really a good time and although being the Mother of the bride can be exhausting it was all worth it when Micah told me it was a “perfect day.”  That meant the world to me and made me cry.  He’s a very nice young man and we feel very blessed to have him in our family. I think this picture says it all.

 

The happy couple

Kat & Micah

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning my family and Kat and Micah met for breakfast as my brother and dad were headed to the airport.  Then Kat, Micah, Kyrston, Jeremy, my mom, Wendy, Lee’s mom and dad and his Aunt Dorothy all came over to the camper.  Thank heavens Dede and Denny stopped and bought lunch for everyone because I don’t think I had it in me to cook.  We sat and talked and watched the kids open some of their presents and had a really great time although after the last person left I fell into bed at 8pm and slept like the dead until 6am. It was a wonderful, wonderful week and I am so happy we got to be a part of it.

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On a side note, I did want to mention  that Dede and Denny actually bought us some presents and brought them over on Sunday (everything does at least two things) and when they left DeDe put a beautiful card in the bathroom sink where we would find it at the end of the night.  Her note read: “Never lose sight of the fact that it is never about a destination – life is always about the journey! I hope that your journey is always fun and full of adventure! Even the bumps of the road are part of the journey.  Enjoy them all. Here’s to a beautiful ride.  Love, Mom and Denny.”  She is such a special woman and Denny is an amazing man.  They have been so very very supportive of this lifestyle from the very beginning and the thoughtfulness they put into both their gifts and that card still makes me tear up thinking about it.  We love you both and I know you are reading this because you always read our blog!  So, it’s back to our adventure now and in some respects we feel like we are truly getting started.  The last eight months has been largely about family, friends,  and Lee going to RV Tech school, but now we are headed for the wide open spaces and will be really seeing if this lifestyle is sustainable for us.  Stay tuned, because although it may be bumpy at times, I can promise you it will be an interesting ride!

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First Wedding on the Road – Part 1

I’m sorry it has taken me so long to write a new blog post. We had the pre-wedding, the wedding, and then we moved, so things have been very busy.  I also wanted to mention that although I took pictures around the date of the wedding, the actual wedding day I chose not to take any pictures at all.  We hired a professional photographer and those pictures will be available in about 30 days so I will share them in a separate post.  But I am jumping ahead. Let me go back to the beginning.

We left Anatoth Farm on the Wednesday before the wedding, and moved to St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park, a county park in Hastings, MN. I chose this park because of its proximity to the venue, and the hotel where the out-of-town guests were staying, but what a pleasant surprise.  The sites were extremely large and well cared for, and our site “Z” was one of the best sites we have ever stayed in.  Now, before you get too excited, there’s some down side. They don’t allow pets, they have a somewhat grumpy staff (both volunteers and employees) and are only water and electric, but WOW, the site itself was really terrific.  

View from our campsite

View from our campsite

Boat dock area

Boat dock area

 

 

River

St. Croix River

 

 

 

 

The fawn that visited us every morning

The fawn that visited us every morning

 

After getting settled, we ran into Hastings and went to Walmart.  We are going to spend a month in International Falls, where Lee will be doing some video production for the RV-Dreams website.  The campground we will be staying at is very remote (about 34 miles to the nearest grocery store) so Linda recommended stocking up.  I knew the next few days would be crazy so decided now was the best time to get it out-of-the-way.  I’m so glad that I did, because as you will see, the next few days were definitely action packed.  When we were driving through Hastings I saw a sign that said The Falls of the Vermillon River.  After a quick internal debate I asked Lee if we could turn around and stop.  I am still not used to the fact that we can just stop and see things.  That’s one of the best things about this lifestyle, the ability to take a pause and really look around.  Even after eight months though, I still feel the conditioning to get where I am going, and finish what I am doing, but I am getting better at taking the time to stop and see things and enjoy myself!  Every time the thing we stop to look at is awesome, it reinforces how good the decision was to slow down and take a look.  Take a look at the pictures and you decide if the short detour was worth it.  Both Lee and I definitely thought it was.

The Falls at Vermilion River

This was a really big waterfall tucked in a corner of a park we were really surprised.

The walls surrounding the falls were really cool with natural caves

The walls surrounding the falls were really cool with natural caves

Lots of old beautiful trees and as a tree lover this one really spoke to me

Lots of old beautiful trees and as a tree lover this one really spoke to me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we had a couple of nature moments which was lovely because by Thursday the wedding was in full swing.  I took Wednesday through Friday off so had plenty of time, and we took full advantage of it.  First, we met the kids for lunch at this really funky Ecuadoran restaurant.   It’s one of Kat’s favorites and since it was her 24th birthday, she got to pick.  It was actually very good and we loved spending time with just us, Kat and Micah, Nick (our almost son), his girlfriend Slushie, and Kyrston (who had flown in the day before).   One thing about this wedding; it really showed how much people love my daughter.  We had several of her friends from New Hampshire come in and Nick and Slushie flew all the way in from San Francisco, as well as my parents and brother and sister, who flew in from Ohio, and Lee’s parents and aunt, who drove from Ohio.

From left: Nick, Lee, Micah, Kat, and Kyrston

From left: Slushie, Nick, Lee, Micah, Kat, and Kyrston

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we all split up, and Kat, Kyrston, and I went out for some beauty.  First we went downtown and visited Kat’s hair salon and got eyebrow waxes.  It was really nice and in a mall that was in a variety of connected office buildings.  Because the snow is so bad there is a complete enclosed skywalk system that connects most of the buildings on the second floor, and the first and second floors are often taken up by retail establishments which take advantage of the foot traffic. Very cool.  Then we met Linda (Micah’s mom), Sarah (Micah’s Sister), Jamie (Sarah’s wife), and Stacy (the maid of honor) to get manicures and pedicures. It was a lot of fun, and afterwards we went back to Sarah and Jamie’s house and met the all the guys for dinner.  That was amazingly fun.  We ate food, drank wine, and played a really fun game called “J’awesome”.  It’s a game the kids made up by combining Taboo, Charades, and Password.  It’s pretty complicated to explain but you use the same phrases through all three rounds, but are allowed to use less clues each round to get people to guess.  I haven’t laughed that hard in a long while and the wine was really good.  It was the perfect way to start off the weekend with both sides of the family together and we were so grateful to Sarah and Jamie for hosting.

From right: Stacy, me, Kyrston, Sarah, and Jamie

From right: Stacy, me, Kyrston, Sarah, and Jamie

 

 

 

Stacy (who was the best maid of honor I have ever seen) and Kat

Stacy (who was no kidding the most amazing  maid of honor I have ever seen) and my girl Kat

My beautiful Kat

My beautiful Kat (also known as Katy)

 

 

 

 

 

My son-in-law Micah and me

My son-in-law Micah and me

Micah's brother Jesse who was an absolute doll through the whole process

Micah’s brother Jesse who was an absolute doll through the whole process.  He kept giving me random hugs to keep me going.  Such a sweetheart.

Linda...Micah's Mom

Linda…Micah’s Mom was having a great time

 

 

Thursday was a ton of fun but the serious work started on Friday.  Lee and I got to the venue at 8:50am (luckily the wine was so good I didn’t even have a teeny hangover) and were pleasantly surprised to see that Stacy had beat us there was already working!  See what I mean? Best Maid of Honor ever!!  The venue is called Jean Acres (the owner’s name is James Jean which cracked me up) and it’s a working farm that they have converted into an event venue.  Really cool place and I can see why the kids fell in love with it, but it doesn’t come with staff, so we knew we (and our awesome volunteers) would be doing most of the heavy lifting.  We started with setting up the tables and the place settings because we knew this process would take some time.  Katy and Micah were very specific about what they wanted for place settings, as they wanted them to represent their interests. By this time I was on board with the idea but I knew it would take time.  Luckily, Stacy was a huge help with this and we got the tables complete in 2-1/2 hours.  I’d like to mention here that you can have an absolutely gorgeous wedding on a budget, but you need to do a lot of the work yourself. Since we are on a budget and not afraid of some hard work we were perfectly happy to jump in.  Plus I have to say it was really fun getting to explore my artistic side and when my mother-in-law told me three times at the wedding how great the tables looked it was totally worth it. My picture below doesn’t show them in the completed stage, so I’ll replace them with the photographers photos later but here’s a taste so you can get an idea.  We added flowers and twinkle tea lights the next day. 

Micah loves dinosaurs and I was all about making that happen so this centerpiece (with some flowers that came later) was on the head table

Micah loves dinosaurs and I was all about making that happen so this centerpiece (with some flowers that came later) was on the head table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures of the kids

Linda and I chose pictures of the kids and then coordinated them with one of Kat and Micah’s favorite quotes which was in the third frame.  These were a huge hit

 

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They had books, with keys and a cup of tea really cute.  We also had one with lab beakers but I didn’t get a pic of that

Kat and I were into it

This is pre flowers but the space was really quite beautiful once it was all done

 

Kat and I had a really good time

Kat and I had a really good time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were working on this Kyrston arrived with her boyfriend Jeremy who came straight from the airport.  Jeremy is an Assistant Manager of a beautiful wedding venue in Newport Rhode, Island and he was an absolute life saver.  I would put him on an area and say “work your magic” then walk away and come back to find something absolutely gorgeous.  This was the first time Jeremy had met Lee (who rarely likes the boyfriends on the first meeting) and Lee was impressed.  Plus, he’s a really sweet guy and obviously adores my daughter.  Gotta love that!

Jeremy's snack table made from stuff he found laying around...amazing

Jeremy’s snack table made from stuff he found laying around…amazing

 

 

Jeremy and Kyrston

Jeremy and Kyrston

 

While my crew was working on the reception area, Lee and his crew were working on the ceremony site.  The farm has a huge beautiful willow tree and the kids decided they wanted to get married underneath it.  Katy had hired two people from Panera to help Saturday and Sunday and they worked with Lee to get the 120 chairs arranged.  He also placed stakes in the ground so the wedding party would know where to stand and with Nick and Slushie’s help started setting up the four video cameras to tape the rehearsal.  Lee was a wedding videographer when we were very young and has done many, many weddings, but he was going to be pretty busy walking the bride down the aisle so Nick graciously offered to help with the cameras during the actual ceremony. Luckily we knocked most of the work out prior to it getting really hot but around 12:30 it was pretty brutal.  I think it was the hottest day of summer so far and the humidity was very high.  Everyone hung in there though, and we were in good shape when the rest of the wedding party started to arrive around 2:30.

Slushie and Nick were a huge help with the video setup

Slushie and Nick were a huge help with the video setup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to say the rehearsal worked beautifully.  Jim (Micah’s dad) set up his sound system (he has done sound at many weddings) and Lee worked with everyone to get the timing and blocking down.  Then we walked through the ceremony twice and were done by 4:30.  It was incredibly hot, but folks were very patient with the process, and I will say Lee knows what he is doing, because the actual ceremony the next day went off without a hitch and that is largely due to the pre-production work he coordinated in the rehearsal.  After the rehearsal, the wedding party went into the party room section of the venue which was somewhat cooler and had the rehearsal dinner.  Micah’s Aunt and Uncle made some wonderful food and the deserts Barb made were to die for.  After dinner, we headed back to the hotel everyone was staying in, and met my family that had flown or driven in that day.  My sister Wendy came with my mom and my brother Eddie came with my dad. Lee’s parents Dede and Denny drove and had stopped in Indiana to pickup Lee’s Aunt Dorothy.  It was wonderful seeing everyone and we had a really big group between our and Micah’s family and it was a nice informal way for everyone to meet the day before.  This seems a good place to break, so stay tuned for The Wedding – Part II and thanks so much to all my friends and family who were so very supportive throughout the process.

Lee directing the wedding party

Lee directing the wedding party

Lined up in nice neat rows

Lined up in nice neat rows

 

Pulled pork, cucumber salad, and kale salad all from ingredients produced from the farm ...yummy!!

Pulled pork, cucumber salad, and kale salad all from ingredients produced from the farm …yummy!!

The two kinds of chees cake were awesome!!

The two kinds of cheese cake were awesome!!

 

From left: P.J her best man, Stacy her maid of honr, and Kat

From left: P.J her best man, Stacy her maid of honor, and Kat

Katy wore a beautiful dress

Katy wore a beautiful dress

St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park 10191 St Croix Trail S, Hastings, MN   4 out of 5 pine cones

Extremely large and neat sites all pull through in the modern campground area.  Electric and Water only but very clean dump station,  Site Z is on the corner looking into woods and field and we regularly saw deer walking through.  There is a beach and boat access, along with conference centers, a playground, volley ball court, tennis court, and many other common areas.  NO PETS are allowed in the campground (although we saw them in the boat dock area).  It was largely empty the entire time we were there and the fellow campers were quiet and polite.  My largest complaint was the office staff and campground hosts.  They were not very friendly to “out-of towners” and complete sticklers for the rules.  That being said, aesthetically it was a beautiful park, one of the nicest we have stayed in.  There is no wi-fi, but my ATT coverage was good.  The price is $25 a day and what is not very clear on their website is there is an additional per car $5 day access pass you have to pay for on arrival. (Reservations for the campground are done online.) The annual pass is $25 which you can purchase if your stay is 5 days or longer.  They are also inflexible with their cancellation policy.  We left a day early and even though we told them that at the beginning of our one week stay they were unwilling to refund us that day.   You can stay in the park for one week but then need to move to another spot if you are going to stay longer.

 

Supporting our Blog

We very much appreciate your support of our blog.

  • As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.  Search Amazon Here
  • You can purchase the ebook telling the story of how we became full-time RVers.
  • You can purchase our recipe book filled with 80 recipes we have cooked in our RV and taste tested by Lee himself. You can purchase the kindle or paperback version on Amazon or buy the Apple version on Itunes.

 

 

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First Time in Stillwater, MN

As much as we are enjoying the farm, I really wanted to get out this weekend and see the area a bit so I decided on visiting Stillwater, MN which is about 45 minutes away.  Stillwater is a very quaint town built on Lake St. Croix which was made when the Mississippi where it joined the St. Croix river.  Originally the St. Croix river was an outlet of the glacial Lake Duluth (precursor to Lake Superior) and ran much higher and even before that the ocean covered Minnesota during the Cambrian period.  The rock walls are very distinctive and chiefly made of sandstone and because they exist here in such pristine condition, these formations are known as the St. Croixian series wherever they appear in North America.  The town is also the site where the state of Minnesota was originally formed and is super cute with tons of restaurants and shops.  So geology, history, and shopping…I am totally in!!

Stillwater as seen from the height where the river used to be

Stillwater as seen from the height where the river used to be

Birthplace of Minnesota

Birthplace of Minnesota

An example of the sandstone walls

An example of the sandstone walls

They had paddleboat tours along the lake

They had paddleboat tours along the lake

 

They have done an excellent job with the town itself by taking the old existing buildings and turning them into retail establishments without losing the original look and feel of the city. I was also very fond of this little park they have called Teddy Bear Park for kids and my absolute favorite was the million dollar restroom.  There is a simple brick restroom down on the waterfront which they call the million dollar restroom because it is taking up a space of prime waterfront real estate.  Very cool.  So great shops, lots of bar restaurants, and a funky feel.  Hang onto your wallet though because the prices are on the high side and it’s hard not to want to buy a few things.

Grainery converted into a cafe

Grainery converted into a cafe

The "million dollar" restroom

The “million dollar” restroom

 

 

 

This particular building reminded me of downtown Keene

This particular building reminded me of downtown Keene

Every time I see an Oil and Vinegar store I think of my friend Deb who used to own one

Every time I see an Oil and Vinegar store I think of my friend Deb who used to own one

Fun main street

Fun main street

I loved this sign outside of one of the bars

I loved this sign outside of one of the bars

 

This is one of those bar bikes where everyone pedals and it meanders around town

This is one of those bar bikes where everyone pedals and it meanders around town

An adirondack chair made out of leftover skis was cool and unique

An Adirondack chair made out of leftover skis was cool and unique

 

My favorite store had tshirts with the jacket covers of out of print books

My favorite store had tshirts with the jacket covers of out of print books

a kids section

a kids section

 

Lee was bummed they only had the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy in medium

Lee was bummed they only had the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy in medium

Lots of neat cafes

Lots of neat outdoor cafes

 

This brewery was awesome

This brewery was awesome

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After Stillwater we took our time driving back to the farm and along the way we discovered an old drive in theater that had been turned into an outdoor church.  Our friend Mark loves drive in theaters and we knew he would like the pictures so we stopped and checked it out.  Pretty neat concept really you can drive in with your car and then listen to the minister who is on a little stand.

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We also stopped and saw Rice Beds Creek which is an area close to the the farm where wild rice grows.  The harvesting process sounds pretty laborious.  It is a two person job, one pushing the canoe, the other inside.  You bend over the rice (which looks like tall grass) and then whack it so the rice falls in the bottom of the canoe.  I guess it is a hot, buggy exercise and once you have the rice you still need to to take it somewhere to be processed (baked and hulled).  I bought some wild rice from the Co-Op at $17 a pound and we will see if the taste is worth that much work.  Most Minnesota wild rice you eat in stores is actually a hybrid of regular rice and wild rice which allows it to be grown and cultivated by more traditional methods.  It was  cool though and the pictures don’t do justice to how pretty the area was.

Wild Rice Creek

Wild Rice Creek

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Sunday I had an opportunity to attend the West Denmark Lutheran church.  I was raised and confirmed Lutheran and identify myself as such (although I am quite happy to attend other churches as well) and was excited about the opportunity to attend a Lutheran church in an area of the country where they are very common.  The West Denmark church was founded primarily by some Danish families and reflects both the Lutheran religion but also the culture and value systems of the local danish people.  The original church was lost to fire in the 1980’s and the new one is full of the most beautiful wood.  It also has several pieces of hand carved wood (including the large cross) that were done by a member of the church who was the  great-grandson of a famous danish woodcarver.  The church sits on 11 acres of lake front property and has multiple buildings including a small school, party room, church, and house for Pastor Linda and her husband.  I was curious as to how they made that work with such a small congregation but it turns out that the church allowed a widow and her 5 children to live in the house after the father died.  All 5 kids went on to become very successful in life and not forgetting what the church had done for them contribute substantially to infrastructure projects.  I love stories like that.  Makes me believe in the human spirit.  The other thing I really liked about the church is that on it’s programs it states that it is open to all regardless of race, creed, or sexual orientation.  So this tiny Danish church in the middle of rural Wisconsin is doing it’s own small part to support the LGBT community.  Again, amazing what you find as you wander this country and some of the nicest surprises are in the least likely places.

West Denmark Lutheran Church

West Denmark Lutheran Church

The cross was hand carved and beautiful

The cross was hand carved and beautiful

The detail on the banisters was stunning and represented the Danish heritage

The detail on the banisters was stunning and represented the Danish heritage

Loved this prayer stand

Loved this prayer stand

 

This handmade Danish ship was made by a deceased parishioner and hangs proudly from the rafters

This handmade Danish ship was made by a deceased parishioner and hangs proudly from the rafters

Very lovely

Very lovely

 

The rest of Sunday was largely uneventful but we did have some very serious storms at night. Linda and Jim offered to allow us into their home but we decided to ride it out in the rig.  Peak gusts were over 50 mph and the rig did shake a little, but it was manageable. I felt quite a bit safer since we weren’t near any big trees, but the lightning did freak me out a little.  It’s definitely going to be part of what we have to deal with going forward and overall I thought we did OK.  Lee’s really calm in a crisis so that helped keep me calm as well.

So that’s the end of the farm posts.  I work Monday and Tuesday, we move to a campground closer to the venue on Wednesday and then its all wedding through the weekend.  Don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from me for awhile I am guessing I will be pretty busy!!

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Farm Cooking is the Best!!

Aside from wedding planning and work we’ve been trying to take it easy this week.  Lee spent a couple of days mowing on the farm and had a blast.  He gets very zen when he mows and I got to spend a day teaching Jim and Linda how to make my Great-Grandma Alice’s homemade noodles.  These are the types of activities we rarely get to do in the RV and both of us enjoyed ourselves immensely.  My Great-Grandmother was a huge part of my life and since I was little little she would let me “help” her make noodles.  So not only are these the best noodles I have ever eaten but they hold deep sentimental value for me.  Unfortunately they take all day to make and a ton of work space.  I could probably do it in our table in the rig but it was much better making them in Jim and Linda’s large farm kitchen.   Jim is a real foodie (I caught him watching Julia Child on PBS the other day) and with the ingredients he has to work with, who can blame him?  Since one batch of the noodle recipe requires a dozen eggs and eggs are definitely something not in short supply out here, I asked if I could use their kitchen and they kindly agreed.  Linda and I had a lot of fun and the noodles turned out pretty good, not as good as grandma’s of course, but not bad.   So we made three batches and they kept some and I have others to freeze plus now they have a recipe they can try if they have a lot of eggs to use up.  So I have included the recipe below, just in case you are so inclined but be prepared for your table to be taken up for most of a day.

Linda and I making some noodles. The flour on our faces was added for effect :)

Linda and I making some noodles. The flour on our faces was added for effect !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also made dinner for them one night (pasta shells stuffed with meatballs, using Mom’s spaghetti sauce recipe) and we had a salad fresh from the garden.  Ahhh, salads.  We have had a fresh salad almost every day and every one has been different.  We largely have been making our own dressing and trying different ingredients and every one has been delicious.  To this point in my life I have largely stuck with iceberg lettuce but the quality of lettuce coming out of their garden has won me over.  Plus they made kale salad one night and I liked it much better than I thought I would.  Kale is one of those “superfoods” that is really good for you, and I was glad to try the recipe of someone who is a true kale lover. So, it’s been a great eating week with my only concern being that I don’t overeat to the point where the dress I’m wearing to the wedding doesn’t fit! Actually, the calorie count on these meals is pretty low and the ingredients are so fresh they don’t need heavy sauces to give them flavor.  So, yummy and good for you..I am sold on this farm living!!

I do like to give a complete view though, and farm living in an RV  does come with some challenges.  Water was my first concern. Not all well water is equal and some is not drinkable at all unless it is filtered, but we are very lucky here that the water quality is excellent. Pressure is another matter though as we are sharing a pumped well-water source with both the main house and all the animals.  Generally pressure is fine, but whenever they are watering the animals it goes down to a trickle.  We are working around this by filling our tank in the evenings and then using the our freshwater tank and water pump during animal feeding times. It took a few days to figure out the routine, but now we’ve got it down.

Electric has also been interesting. They have a 30 amp outlet on the side of their garage, but it is a different, residential connector than the 30 amp adaptor we have for the rig. So, we’ve been using the standard 15 amp outlet with an adaptor to our 50 amp rig. We have a voltage regulator which protects us from sudden drops and increases in power levels, but we need to be careful on how many amps we are pulling at one time.  Lee has gotten really creative about this, changing the fridge to propane prior to running the microwave, or turning the water heater off throughout the day and only using it in the morning.  Again, once we figured it out it has been fine but when it started to get really hot we all felt we needed to try something different.  We need at least 30 amps to run one air conditioner, and since our space in the field is full sun the internal temperature of the rig can get 15 degrees higher (or more) than outside.  Lee discussed it with Jim and he picked up a 50 amp stove/dryer outlet box at the local hardware store. He removed the existing 30 amp outlet and installed the 50 amp outlet. The breaker is still 30 amp, so there’s no danger, but it does allow us to pull the full 30 amps we need to run at least one AC, which is actually adequate to cool the rig and pull down the humidity level. Running two AC units, at least in moderate heat, just allows them both to cool without working as hard. Then we tested the power and we were able to run one air conditioner at a time, which should be a life saver this weekend as the heat index is going to be extremely high with 70 percent humidity. So keep in mind although the farm may have 30 amps, the outlet may not be RV compatible.  Farm outlets are different from RV ones. Technically, the outlet Lee installed is not supposed to be used outside, but it’s not exposed to the elements, because the garage has a roof extending 10′ from the side of the building, creating plenty of cover so if it rains there’s no danger of the outlet box getting wet. It’s also going to be in place for less than 5 days.

Another possible issue was heavy rain.  I was very concerned about being on grass because we have seen friends get stuck in fields before.  We talked to Jim about this ahead of time though and our spot is grass on gravel, in a high point on the yard, and has very good drainage.  This was proved out when we had 6″ of rain in a 24 hour period and we had no standing pools of water.  Lee was proactive as well and put the wheels on rubber mats and the stabilizers in rubber squares as well which worked great.  (Before we left to go on the road, Lee bought two heavy rubber horse stall mats and cut them into squares for all 4 jacks and longer strips for the tires on the truck and RV in case of this kind of scenario.  I love how he thinks ahead and it was great to see it work.

(Another thing worth pointing out is that since we’re still not hardcore “boondockers” yet, we don’t go over the top with water conservation yet. We take normal showers, and we cook and eat on regular pots and dishes, so we use water to wash dishes. We also do laundry in the rig. [As a further aside, as part of the electrical solution, I hung a laundry line between the rig and the garage to dry clothes. I love the smell of clothes dried on a line, there’s nothing like it.] So, we fill our grey tank pretty quickly. We have a portable tank in the bed of our truck and a macerator pump, and when we stay places that don’t have sewer connections, I pump the grey water into the tank so I can drive it to a dump station. That has worked very well in the past, but being here for two weeks and no nearby dump station, we are doing something a little different. We’re on the edge of a grazing pasture, and since it’s just grey water, we are using the macerator pump and 100′ of hose to just pump the grey water out into the field. I’ve stuck a post in the ground and attached the hose to the end of it, and I’m essentially just watering the field. There’s been no smell whatsoever, and I’m putting water back into the ground. After a week and a half, the grass and wildflowers in that area are already noticeably taller than those around them.- Lee)

Bugs is the other big surprise to me.  When we visited before it was September and the bug population was manageable but its high growing season here and not surprising the bugs are in a flurry.  We are using our tiki torches and pots quite a bit to some effect, but get herded inside at dusk when they really seem to go nuts.  When (not if) they get inside, our tennis racket style bug zapper does work great. The main house has lots of bats which work wonders to keep the porch and immediate area largely free of bugs.  I am thinking we should have a bat house over by the garage area where we are staying for future visits 🙂

These issues don’t really bother us at all. Jim has been more than helpful in trying to get us setup as comfortably as possible.  Lee views it as a bit of a challenge and by looking at it like a puzzle to be solved, avoided any feelings of frustration.  I’m so grateful to have a place to stay for free, I am more than happy to get creative, so overall the entire situation has been great.  But I realize not everyone has the knowledge to do electrical rewiring and not every property owner would be OK with it in any case, so it’s very important that you recognize the situation may have unique challenges and then work together to find solutions.

The nicest thing that happened to me this week was Cori sent me a surprise.  She reached out to Linda on Facebook and coordinated sending a care package to me at the farm.  She included a wedding care package for Lee and I (including a lot of alcohol and some tissues that say “This Ain’t My First Rodeo” which made me laugh as this is the second wedding we have planned. It also included a super sweet card and my favorite, a package to take into the brides ready room the day of the wedding with tons of little things that we could need in an emergency.  The kit was put together by Cori and included some great items like the Altoids I use, bug spray (it’s an outdoor wedding) and a first aid kit.  It was such a thoughtful gesture that I immediately burst into tears.  Later when Lee took a break from mowing and saw the present I told him how surprised I was I started crying, his response was “I’m not surprised. You’re an emotional wreck.” Men!!!  I think I am holding up pretty well considering.  Anyways, it truly was one of the kindest things anyone has ever done for me and I love Cori for it.

Our wedding care package

Our wedding care package

The card she sent...I'm the little girl which cracked me up

The card she sent…I’m the little girl… cracked me up

Yes those are tears in my eyes

Yes those are tears in my eyes

The package for in the brides ready room

The package is for the brides ready room

Recipes

Grandma Alice’s Homemade Noodles

The recipe below is per batch.  Since the drying process takes so long and the noodles freeze so well I recommend making multiple batches simultaneously, assuming you have the table space.  The noodles can be used for chicken and noodles, soup, or any other recipe that calls for egg noodles. 

  • 12 eggs
  • 3 cups flour
  • 4 TBL water
  1. Add 2 complete eggs and 10 egg yolks to large mixing bowl and mix
  2. Add 3 cups of flour and mix until you have a yellow colored ball of dough (do not over mix as this will result in tough noodles)
  3. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes
  4. Cover table with thin layer of flour
  5. Place ball of dough on table and smash somewhat flat with hands, flip and flour the top lightly
  6. Using a rolling pin roll out the dough to about 1/4″ thickness (this is an inexact science the main point is uniform thickness throughout and the piece of dough does NOT need to be perfectly round)
  7. Lightly flour the top and let dry for 2 hours
  8. Flip and lightly flour the other side (too little flour and it sticks, too much flour and you lose the egg flavor, again, inexact science)
  9. Let dry for 2 hours
  10. Start with the edge of the dough and roll into a multi-layered tube (think strudel)
  11. Place tube on a cutting board and with a VERY sharp knife cut to desired width.  (I like about 1/4″ but they can be skinnier or thicker)
  12. Take slices and gently unroll pinching off noodles into desired lengths; shake gently and let dry on table
  13. Freeze in ziplock bags with as much air removed as possible.
Home made noodles

Home made noodles

Easy Stuffed Shells 

  • 16 uncooked pasta shells
  • 16 oz spaghetti sauce (bottled or Connie’s sauce with no meat)
  • 16 frozen full cooked Italian meatballs (thawed)
  • 1 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
  1. Thaw meatballs
  2. Cook pasta shells as directed by the box, drain, and rinse with cool water
  3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  4. Place 1/2 cup pasta sauce in bottom of baking dish
  5. Place one thawed meatball in each shell and lay on top of sauce
  6. Pour remaining sauce over shells
  7. Top with cheese
  8. Bake covered for 35 minutes
  9. Uncover and bake for 3-7 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly
  10. Serve
Easy Stuffed Shells

Easy Stuffed Shells

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Changing the Way I Define Myself

I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about how I define myself and how that is changing with our new lifestyle.  The reason I have been thinking about it is that when I am out of my comfort zone I often mentally catalog my accomplishments.   It is my way of grounding myself when I am in a situation that is unfamiliar or scary. Essentially, it is my way of taking a deep breath and counting to ten.  I do realize though that the list of accomplishments is continually changing.  Partly because my life experience itself is changing (which makes sense) but also because what I value  changes.  When I think about who I am and what I have done, certain things matter in that moment, but later in life those same accomplishments don’t seem so spectacular.  A great example is when I achieved my bachelors degree I felt really great about that at the time (and it made the internal list), but it was later supplanted by the MBA, and then ultimately supplanted by the more generic fact that I spent 13 years simultaneously going to school, working, and raising kids.   So as I get older what I view as an achievement changes and as my life circumstances change that changes the criteria as well. It’s not surprising then that becoming full timers (the second biggest change in my life next to having a child) has that internal list all in a jumble.

For a long time my list was pretty traditional.  Raising kids has always topped my accomplishment list, but the older the kids have gotten and the more their  accomplishments are truly their own the less impact that has.  It does feel a bit like resting on laurels at this point.  Yes, I did it, and arguably I will never do anything more important, but most of the heavy lifting (although you never stop being a parent)  was done in the past.   Education was always very important to me and will be something I carry with me forever, but as time passes those accomplishments  also become more distant. There are more esoteric items of course.   Being a good person has always been on the list, but how I define what a good person is has fluctuated.  It’s also complicated because being a good person is also tied up in my faith and I am constantly reevaluating how to be a good person and still have limits with people.   In any event those three items have been on my list since adulthood and will remain there in some form probably forever, but the other criteria is undergoing a huge change with this lifestyle  which is what prompted this post.

Owning a house was a really big deal for us.  It took us years to build the financial stability necessary to buy our first home and subsequently ownership of a home was a huge accomplishment beyond the physical entity itself.  It stood for achieving a level of adulthood and responsibility and represented safety and security.  When we started this lifestyle we knew we could give up the house, but I don’t think I truly understood how we would also be giving up those other feelings.  I know I am not alone in this, many people struggle deeply with the concept of being “homeless” and it is a major emotion most people have to deal with when becoming full timers.  You can make the case (and many do) that the RV will take the place of your home, but for me it is different.  Again, I am talking about my home as an accomplishment and base of security, not the physical entity itself which is an important distinction. This has required a major shift in thinking on my part and has removed one of my pillars of accomplishment.  That sounds a bit dramatic but becoming a home owner was a really big deal for me.  Along those lines I think this is a good place to talk about comparisons.

Most people tend to compare themselves to others based upon that internal list of things they value.  It’s an incredibly subjective measurement of success of course, but most people’s early list is defined by their parents, family, friends, and society they grow up in. Unless we are unusually self-aware we often don’t realize how subjective the list is until much much later. Personally,   I was raised in a small town, non-diverse community where what qualified as success was VERY clearly spelled out.   It took many years of being exposed to diverse people (along with my husband who has a totally different measurement system) to understand that how you define yourself and whether your life is a success can and should vary from person to person.  The worst thing you can do is use someone else’s measurement system to define yourself.  But if you do have to compare yourself to others, this is important: make sure it’s an even playing field.  For years I beat myself up because we didn’t own a house earlier (as compared to some of my peers) but later discovered that many people we knew who bought houses earlier than we did had significant down payments given to them by their parents.  So you would think at my age I would have learned to judge myself only by my behavior,  but the desire to in some way “keep score” seems to be deeply ingrained.  What does all this have to do with full-timing?  I have absolutely no idea how to keep score in this new life, and seriously since the whole point of the thing is freedom why would I want to? It happens though, because people are people and I have seen judgement made on whether you are a full timer or part timer, what kind of rig/truck you have, how many days you can boondock without emptying your tanks, etc.  As soon as you start defining something, some people start categorizing and assigning values to it.   Although while we were in the research stage I bought into some of that,  now that we have been doing this a while I  think all that is pretty silly.  I definitely  subscribe to the “No One True Way” mentality when it comes to  how people full-time.  That’s good, but it still leaves me with this problem.  I would love to say I had evolved past the need to judge myself, but I am just not there yet.   The traditional categories don’t make any sense anymore so I am left with trying to define some “success” criteria that makes sense.

As much as I hate to use what you do for a living and how much money you make are pretty traditional ways of determining how well you are doing.  Other commonly used ones are how many toys you have, the kind of car you drive, or the neighborhood you live in.  But here I am in a lifestyle that by its very nature defies those sorts of categorizations.  The vehicles we use are functional, we don’t have an address, we have very few toys since we don’t have room for them, and although I have kept my job and my title I am trying to live a lifestyle where my life doesn’t completely revolve around that job…it’s one of the major points of the whole change.  So I am thinking that if I absolutely have to find a way to judge myself maybe I should go back to the beginning and start with what I value.  Not what others value, but the mature, hopefully evolved me.   I value kindness.  I value contribution to society, which can take many forms.  I value hard work, transparency, and inclusiveness.  I value constructive rebellion,  nonconformity, and courage.  (I truly value those last three but I am not very good at them).  I value friendship, and my marriage.  So how do I create subjective criteria in these areas?  I have absolutely no idea.  But I do know I need to find a way to change my mental list to reflect these values which hopefully will  lead to a day when I am truly comfortable in my own skin and can give up the list altogether.  Either way it’s a work in progress, but as they say, the first step is recognizing the need for change.

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Second Time Camping in Luck

Twenty-one months ago Lee and I took our travel trailer on our first long-term road trip to visit our daughter in Minneapolis and we stayed on her fiance’s parents farm in Luck, Wisconsin.  We were very new to camping at that time and that trip convinced us that not only did we like it, but actually living in a camper was an interesting idea and one we should seriously explore.  Fast forward and we have been full-timers for 7 months, we have a MUCH larger RV, and we are back on the farm getting ready for Kat and Micah’s wedding.  So much has changed, but the pleasure of being here and spending time with Jim and Linda thankfully has not.  They are the warmest people and went out of their way to make us feel welcome and comfortable.   As a side note, for those of you who have a piece of property and want to open it up to full-time RVers all I can say is what a wonderful gift that is.  We have a free place to stay (very friendly on the budget) and we are hooked up to their garage for electric and water.  The power is 15 amp which is working just fine for most everything plus we have the generator if it gets really hot.  We also borrowed a box fan which is helping greatly with air flow.  And we don’t need to empty the grey tank at the nearby campground as we have a macerator pump and are parked next to a large grazing field which we are watering.  Plus they have a salad garden and we have had the most wonderful salad and meals every day since we’ve been here.  Nothing much like eating a chicken that was farm raised and killed recently. 

Our rig at the farm

Our rig at the farm

The salad garden

The salad garden

Jim and Linda's house made from reclaimed old wood is really cool

Jim and Linda’s house made from a reclaimed log home is really cool

 

Grey water (after going through the macerator pump) sprinkling the field

Grey water (after going through the macerator pump) sprinkling the field

Lee and I are both fascinated by the economics of running a farm.  Once the major infrastructure elements are in place raising your own animals is very inexpensive.  We did some loose math and beef is costing them roughly $1.60 a pound; pork and chicken around 60 cents a pound. Yes there is labor involved, but since they mainly raise livestock for their own usage and some extra to sell to friends it’s not too terrible.  Mike (Jim’s brother who lives next door) is an expert at sustainable farming and Jim and Mike have been using techniques from as far away as Australia to raise their livestock.  What they are doing definitely shows in the end product as the meat and eggs taste absolutely terrific.

They currently have 5 cows

They currently have 5 cows; two will be butchered soon

The egg laying chickens

The egg laying chickens

Lee discovered they peck you sometimes when you try to get their eggs

Lee discovered they peck you sometimes when you try to get their eggs

Beautiful egg breakfast Lee made from eggs gathered the same morning yummy

Beautiful egg breakfast Lee made from eggs gathered the same morning yummy

Mike has a very large garden and grows potatoes for the local food Co-Op along with lots of produce that his wife cans and freezes.  They feed the scraps and unused greenery to the pigs they raise which also go to the table, so almost nothing is wasted.

Meat chickens live in the barn under a heat lamp at first

Meat chickens live in the barn under a heat lamp at first

Then they move to a chicken coop that can be picked up and moved allowing for free grazing

Then they move to a chicken coop that can be picked up and moved allowing for free grazing

The pigs

The pigs

Garden with greenhouse

Garden with greenhouse

Rows of potatoes

Rows of potatoes

They rotationally graze the cows using some portable fence and move them almost every day to make sure the cows don’t only eat the parts they like.  They also have a very large meadow that they allow to grow and then cut for hay.  Hay making is a three-step process and it is very important that it doesn’t rain during it, so the hay days make for very long days.  First you cut the field, then you rake it to fluff the hay up, and finally you bale it. Out of this large back field they got 800 bails of hay this year which will be more than enough to get the cows through the winter.

Field recently mowed for hay

Field recently mowed for hay

The bailer

The baler

It makes a square hay bail and shoots it but it needs stacked

It makes a square hay bale and shoots it but it needs stacked

The harmony of the entire operation is really interesting to me and I love that they research and implement the latest techniques relying on both the ancient and the modern to run the most efficient and environmentally friendly farm possible.  Lee was very bummed that we had just missed chicken killing day where they processed 70 chickens.  I, on the other hand, was just fine with missing that day, but we definitely do want to pitch in and help with some things as a thank you for allowing us to stay here.  I bought Jim and Linda a couple of bottles of their favorite wine and alcohol to say thanks but a little manual labor wouldn’t kill me.   They still have some hay bales that need to be moved so hopefully we can help with that.  Plus I’ll get to look at the flowers and butterflies some more.

YFlowers YButterfly

Y072 Y015

Y014 Y013

I had Friday off for the holiday and Kat & Micah did as well so they came out in the afternoon.  The six of us spent some time talking about the wedding details and since the kids aren’t having a bridal shower decided to give them their presents.  Jim and Barb bought them a really nice cookware set and I made Kat a cross stitch and had it framed.  I don’t cross stitch much, but I wanted each girl to have a pictorial representation of what I thought of when I pictured them in my mind.  With Kat it is a picture of an angel, because when the kids were small my mom had some beautiful pictures taken of them in angel costumes. Kat was an awesome baby and quite angelic (during her early years) so I thought this was a good representation.  Plus I changed the eye color to green and the lips to ruby-red to match her.  Her reaction was all that I hoped for and Micah was very cool about the fact that their present was really more for her.  He seemed genuinely touched as well which is really all a mom could hope for.

Kat and Micah with their cookwarer

Kat and Micah with their cookware

The look on her face was awesome

The look on her face was awesome

Kat and Micah looking at the picture

Kat and Micah looking at the picture

I got a big hug!!

I got a big hug!!

I also need to mention the town of Luck (population 1119) which is about 7 miles away from the farm.  It is a very small town with one main street and lots of local store owners.  We went into town to pick up a few things and had a chance to visit the hardware store, local butcher, Food Co-op, and liquor store.  The prices were of course a little higher but the quality was really good, especially at the Food Co-Op and the local butcher.  We bought some pork chops and spareribs for a reasonable price and locally grown tomatoes, cucumbers, and Wild rice.  I like shopping local when I can and am willing to pay a little more to get fresh local products and support local merchants and farmers.  We also stopped on the way and took a picture of some dinosaurs made of rocks someone had made in front of their house.  It isn’t on Roadside America yet but I am definitely submitting it!!

Downtown Luck

Downtown Luck

Food Co-Op

Food Co-Op

Local butcher

Local butcher

Cool dinosaur sculpture in someones yard

Cool dinosaur sculpture in someones yard

More dinosaurs

More dinosaurs

On the fourth of July more of the family gathered and we listened to music, drank some beer, and played lawn games.  I’ve never seen Lee play so many games and he actually won the croquet game hands down.  Turns out I am pretty good at ladders (which I have never played before) and we both kind of sucked at a game called bags.  Later in the evening some folks went to fireworks but since it was so buggy many of us stayed in and played the Bigger Blacker Box of Cards Against Humanity which was hysterical.  I have to get the expansion packs.  It was a really fun weekend and it was nice getting to know some of Micah’s extended family better.  We have a week of working and then the true wedding countdown begins. 

Kat, Lee, Jim, and Tony

Kat, Lee, Jim, and Tony

Lee discovered he likes games that he can play and drink

Lee discovered he likes games that he can play and drink

Jim showing me how to play ladders

Jim showing me how to play ladders

Sterling and Pepper

Sterling and Pepper

Leila

Leila

Marley

Marley

Recipes

Warm Walnut and Cranberry Salad

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 TBL balsamic vinegar
  • 1 TBL honey
  • 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
  • Salad Greens
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1/4 cup cranberries
  • 1 cup chopped red onion
  • Feta Cheese crumbles
  1. Heat Oven to 350 degrees
  2. Cook walnuts for 8 minutes
  3. Mix vinegar, honey, olive oil, and Dijon mustard
  4. Mix Greens, walnuts, cranberries, and red onion
  5. Mix with salad dressing
  6. Sprinkle with Feta cheese and mix
  • Walnut and Cranberry Salad

    Walnut and Cranberry Salad

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

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June 2015 Budget

This was another tough month for us, but in this case we had some big life events that happened.  One was the wedding and I thought long and hard about whether to include those costs in the budget at all.  But after thinking about it, you will have weddings, graduations, funerals, etc, along the way and they will generate incidental costs.  So the way I have handled it is to remove the costs for the wedding itself (I had set aside a separate fund for those) but I have left in additional costs such as clothing, personal care, gifts, etc., because those may go along with any special event and there are some lessons learned there.    The second event was the flat tire, and more importantly, replacing two truck tires and an alignment.  The warranty reimbursement for the tire should come at a later date, but the two front tires and alignment were just bad luck (we think the alignment was off when it came from the factory as the wear on both front tires was equally bad).

I would like to take a moment here and talk about my feelings around the budget.  I am absolutely an ant.  What I mean by that is in the ant and the grasshopper fable I would absolutely be the ant who stores away extra for the long hard winter.  There’s nothing wrong with being an ant…there are a lot of us, and we are always solid and well prepared.  But to do this lifestyle (unless you were an ant your whole life and have plenty of money in the bank) you need to have some grasshopper in you.  No, it’s not responsible to fiddle all summer long and not put anything away, but you can’t make every moment of every day about storing away either.  So my responsible ant self is trying to channel her inner grasshopper and not worry so much.  It’s tough though when we have a couple of rough months in a row not to get all skittish.  I’m working on it and wanted to mention it because I know I am not the only ant out there.

Alright..well let’s get into it.  We spent $5300, roughly $1400 over our monthly budget.  The details of what happened in each category are below.

June Budget

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Campground fees – We were under in this category mainly because we stayed for 5 free days at DeDe and Denny’s in their house.  In order not to upset their neighbors, we parked the RV for two days in front of their house at the beginning of our Columbus visit and three days at the end.
  • Groceries – We did the best we ever have in this category.  Mainly because DeDe and Denny fed us quite a bit and we ate out a lot.
  • Dining Out – Speaking of which, $177 over in this category.  This included a Father’s Day dinner for my dad and a Father’s day dinner for Lee’s dad and Step dad and a couple of meals we paid for since we felt bad we were eating all of DeDe and Denny’s food.  So if you look at this category and groceries together, it’s a wash.
  • We did OK in fuel, although we spent more than we have in the past since we traveled quite a distance in the month, but still under budget, which was a good thing.  We will see how this plays out in future months as we start to travel out west over greater distances.
  • Home Improvement – Absolutely got killed in this category again.  I wish I could say it was one big purchase but it was a bit of this and a bit of that and it all adds up.  $241 over.
  • RV Truck Maintenance – So this was the major portion of our overage.  We had to replace the two front truck tires and get an alignment which was $555.  We believe the truck came from the factory misaligned since the wear on the tires was even, but safety comes first and we absolutely needed to get this fixed prior to traveling out West.  The remainder was largely the flat tire but we should be getting a refund for $155 from the Tire Insurance company in future months as we submitted a claim.
  • Gifts – I spent over $400 in this category and it was a perfect storm.  I am rarely with people when holidays occur so when I am I love to buy them a gift.  Mom and I went to Reflexology for Mother’s Day. I bought my niece Elise a birthday present, my nephew turned 1, and half of the wedding present I bought for Katy is in here.  The gift category to me is what the Home Improvement category is to Lee.  I am going to need to do some serious thinking and budgeting in this category for next year, but for this year it largely is what it is.
  • Clothing – So here is a major lesson learned. Lee left his suit in the storage unit because we thought if he needed it we could swing by and get it.  I am not sure why we thought that, it doesn’t even make any sense, but our daughter decided to get married, the suit is buried somewhere in storage and we looked and couldn’t find anything that would remotely work for him in consignment stores.  So this month we paid for shoes, shirt, and belt.  Next month you’ll see the suit itself and the alterations.  This was a $400 expense that could have largely been avoided if we could have planned ahead…so even though you’ll hate taking up the space, bring a suit and a nice dress or two.
  • Miscellaneous – The $40 in this category was for wood.  I will say we are using less wood than I originally thought I would.  I started cooking over campfires quite a bit but it’s a bit of a hassle and we tend to use the grill and oven more. Plus many campgrounds don’t have fire rings, or it’s too warm to want a fire.  We will see how this changes (if it does) when we get out west as well.

So there you have it the Good, Bad, and the Ugly.  I am really proud of how we did in some major categories though.  The trend there is comforting, and if you view the Tire maintenance and Wedding expenses as one time variances it’s not a horrible story.  Still after the wedding, we are both in agreement that we need to settle down and find out what this lifestyle will really cost, with just the two of us in the wide open spaces.  Can’t wait!!

Lessons Learned

  • Make sure you bring at least one outfit that is appropriate to wear to a wedding and a funeral (may require two outfits) as these are not so easy to replace inexpensively on the road.

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Planning the Wedding…and Star Trek!

This week has been all about planning the wedding and for those of you not interested  you might want to skip this post all together. My daughter Kat held off finalizing a lot of the details in order to allow us to participate, which was really awesome, but has added some extra stress for everyone as we all scurry to complete some details.  We wanted to jump right in but with her and I both working full-time we really needed some dedicated time to start completing some tasks.  Thankfully we both were able to take Thursday off and wow did we get a lot done!  I picked her up at her apartment Thursday at 9am and off we went.  Our first stop was the University of Michigan public sale.  Most colleges have a warehouse where they hold materials that are no longer needed by the teachers and staff.  They sell these used items at very low rates, but it definitely is a situation where they may or may not have what you are looking for and everything is placed in a large warehouse space.  The bargain hunter in me was really enjoying it and it’s a good thing we have a small rig or who knows what I would have come home with.  We were there because Kat got some ideas from Pinterest  about table settings that represent the personalities of the couple.  I’m not super creative, but it sounded fun to me and hopefully cheaper on the budget than expensive flower arrangements.  She settled on four settings (repeated 4 times each) with a larger version of each on the head table.  The first was science beakers and glassware (my girl loves science) which would be used as vases for flowers.  There were tons of used scientific glassware at this sale and it was really neat finding cool matching pieces.  As we walked it through the idea really started to come together and we got enough glassware for all 5 tables for $40.  (I’ll share pictures here later when it’s all set up).  

Next we went to a bridal consignment shop called Bridal Aisle and again I was pleasantly surprised.  I was expecting thrift store quality but it was mostly extremely nice, high-end merchandise that was reasonably priced because it had been used once.  We got 36 electronic tea lights (with frosted votive candle holders) for $18.  That was an incredible deal as we later saw those same tealights for $10 for 6 with no holders included.   She also found the perfect veil for $68 and I bought her an earring and necklace set to wear on the day.  Most of these items are one time use and really do you need to spend a ton of money on something you will never use again?  Thankfully both Kat and I are on the same page on this one.  I was incredibly impressed by the level of service as well, as the staff treated us the same, if not better than, a potential bride gets treated in a much more expensive shop. Overall I am sold and recommend highly for anyone planning and financing a wedding to start at these shops.  If you don’t find things you like you can always pay full price somewhere else.

I think its worth noting here that Kat is very serious about feminism and women’s rights.  She is fully aware of how many of the rituals we commonly associate with a wedding have ties back to when the unmarried woman is the property of her father and he was transferring the ownership from himself to another man.  It’s been very interesting watching her and Micah decide which traditions to uphold, which ones to replace with a more modern version, and which ones to reject all together.  So I will say I was a bit surprised she wanted a veil since one of it’s earliest purposes was to hide the appearance of the bride until after the arranged marriage ceremony was completed. When I gently questioned her on her choice, she gave me an impish grin and said, “But I look so pretty in it.”  Gotta love that kid.  My personal view on weddings (particularly as the mother of the bride) is it’s the couple’s wedding but the parents’ party.  So when it comes to decisions around dress, bridal party, ceremony, hair etc I am here for her but largely try to stay out of it.  Anything party related we are absolutely involved in but I do try to defer to the couple as much as possible.  Obviously budget comes into play  with the party decisions in a big way and there are certain basic things that I would require at any party I threw so at times I do have to talk about what’s important to us.  I also try to be very inclusive with the groom’s parents.  Find out what is important to them and try as much as possible to make it happen within the context of what the couple wants and the budget will allow.  It’s a pretty simple formula in my mind and honestly the hardest thing is to not get caught up in the emotion of it all and blow relatively minor things out of proportion.  I feel  as the mother of the bride it is my responsibility to set the tone in this area, making sure the desires of the couple are balanced with the realities of the situation and family dynamics.  So for me (and this is the second time I have done this) it can be very stressful, but if I do my job right everyone will be mostly satisfied and we will have a really great day.

Along these lines of giving people what they want, the second table setting style was going to be dinosaurs.  I know what you’re thinking…I was dubious as well, but Kat showed me this cool picture of dinosaurs spray painted antique bronze as part of a table setting with ferns.  Micah loves dinosaurs and once I wrapped my brain around the concept I was all about finding some.  We went to Dollar General  and found some cool packages of dinosaurs for $1 a piece.  We still needed the larger version for the head table and luckily found some larger ones at Toys R Us.     This was actually really fun and I was excited about finding a way to make a centerpiece that would reflect Micah and still be cool.  Kat’s going to get some ferns and I am going to use some rocks from my collection (yes I have a rock collection and carry it with me…I have rocks from all kinds of places) to create a Jurassic park look for the second centerpiece.   It was a ton of fun working with Kat on this and we had an absolutely awesome time.  Turns out we shop the same way and were both in and out of stores quickly as we picked up a few items in each.  Using this method we visited Pier One, Michael’s, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Party City all in quick succession.  We also found time in there for a great lunch at TGI Friday’s and had a wonderful chat, woman to woman, about marriage and the changes that it can bring to a relationship.  One of the best days I have ever spent with Katy and I am so grateful that we are living this lifestyle because that is what allows me to be here for so long and have this time with her.  Yes… I would have flown here before the wedding but at most I would have had 10 days with her and these smaller things would by necessity have already been done.  It is a gift to be here for a longer time period and another wonderful side effect of our free wheeling lifestyle. 

Carrying on the dinosaur theme we went with the kids (yes I know they aren’t really kids but the short hand works for me) to see Jurassic World.  The movie theater, Paragon,  was the nicest one I have ever been in.  Beautiful Greek statues in the lobby and then individually reclining leather seats for each patron that were nicer than any chair I have ever owned.  Wow….seriously if you have a chance check one of these out and the price was only $10 the same as other theaters in the area.  The movie itself was a lot of fun and definitely what I consider a “big screen” movie.  There are lots of movies I wait for the DVD version because I am not a huge fan of the theater experience in general, but the dinosaur fight at the end was awesome on the huge screen. Afterwards we had some Chipotle which is always my fast food Go To and then we came home and watched some TV.  Lee and I are getting caught up on one of our favorite shows, House of Cards, which we simply haven’t had the time to watch yet.  

Sunday Kat was doing some wedding prep with friends, so Lee and I decided to go to the Star Trek Experience in the Mall of America.  I love Star Trek, all seasons, all captains, I am a huge fan, and this exhibit has a reproduction of the bridge set from the original show which I got super excited about.  Plus the Mall of America is just cool.  If you’ve never been you should go at least once as it’s likely you have never seen anything like it.  We decided to go early on Sunday to beat the crowds and I am so glad we did.  We had the exhibit all to ourselves and we got to take some great pictures, plus I got to check off a bucket list item of sitting in Captain Kirk’s chair.  Yes, I am that big of a nerd and proud of it!!

The mall have multiple stories

The mall have multiple stories

An an indoor Nickolodean themed amusement park

An an indoor Nickelodeon themed amusement park

 

There's even a log ride

There’s even a log ride

Crazy

Crazy!!

 

An Aquarium

An Aquarium

An it's own police station

And its own police station

 

But we went mainly for the Exhibit hall which is currently housing a Barbie Dream Home exhibit, a CSI exhibit, and the Star Trek Exhibit.  We saw lots of families going into the Barbie Dream House.

Barbie dream house

Barbie dream house exterior

Giant pink Barbie show

Giant pink Barbie shoe

 

The Star Trek exhibit was empty when we first got there and was pricey at $16.99, but a small price to pay for a bucket list item.  Still, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are a serious fan.  Most of the coolness factor would be lost if you didn’t follow the show.

 

Lots of prop replicas to look at

Lots of prop replicas to look at

It was funny how junky they were but they are true to life replicas

It was funny how junky they were but they are true to life replicas

Klingon ship chair

Klingon ship chair

Sick bay from the NExt generation

Sick bay from the NExt generation

Next Generation engine room stage. LOVED this

Next Generation engine room stage. LOVED this

I was assimilated!!

I was assimilated!!

 

The costumes were worn by the actors. This was from Next Gen

The costumes were worn by the actors. This was from Next Gen

I was so excited I actually hopped the rope line to sit in the Kiingon chair. Lee said under any other circumstances I wouldn't have done it, but I was to excited

I was so excited I actually hopped the rope line to sit in the Kiingon chair. Lee said under any other circumstances I wouldn’t have done it, but I was too excited

Captain Janeway's Costume...finally women get equal time

Captain Janeway’s Costume…finally women get equal time

I tried on some costumes they had and got all badass with my phaser

I tried on some costumes they had and got all bad ass with my phaser

The moment I had been waiting for ...sitting in the Captain's chair channeling my inner Kirk...pondering how to get us out of another jam

The moment I had been waiting for …sitting in the Captain’s chair channeling my inner Kirk…pondering how to get us out of another jam

Standing at Chekov's station

Standing at Chekov’s station

I even got excited by the fake turbolift...yes I am truly am a nerd

I even got excited by the fake turbolift…yes I am truly am a nerd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a fantastic time and Lee was so cool about it.  He gets excited when I do which is nice.  Plus he took all the great pictures for me.  Afterwards we stopped at the Half-Price Book Store (our favorite chain where all paperbacks are half off their list price) and I found some great books including one by William Shatner called Star Trek Memories.   (Yes I still like the real thing so usually we find them used and then drop them off in whatever campground has a free book area).  It was a really cool day rounding off a nice week.  This week is mainly about work and then a move out to Jim and Linda’s farm in Wisconsin.

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First Time Rv’ing in Minneapolis.

Before starting this journal entry I wanted to thank everyone who read and commented on the First Time Wallydocking post.  My friend Gene wrote a very thoughtful response (he is a big fan of Wallydocking) and in the interest of providing people with a balanced view I thought I would share it here.  So thanks Gene, for taking the time to write this and I absolutely recommend everyone try it for themselves at least once before making a final decision.

“Just like Steve & Debbie we’re big fans of Wallydocking. We also get there late afternoon or early evening. When we run the generator in our motor home it costs us about a gallon of gas an hour. If we know we need A/C we’ll pass on Walmart and look for a campground and get a site with just electric. We’ve stayed in some Walmarts with trucks that ran their engines all night, but it wasn’t a big problem. We’ve learned to park at the outer edge of the parking lot and put out the bedroom slide over a grassy area away from traffic. If we put our jacks down we always put wood under them so we don’t mark the asphalt. Never felt unsafe. We almost always spend money at Walmart, but it’s usually for groceries which we would need to buy anyway. Overnight campgrounds are close to a highway and you can hear traffic and trains all night long. When you’re on the move you don’t want to spend a lot of time or money staying in a campground that you’ll be leaving first thing in the morning. Eileen and I have stayed at many Walmarts that have been clean, quiet and secure.”

We finally arrived in Minneapolis, pretty travel weary, and were happy to settle in for two weeks.  We are staying at Lebanon Hills Regional Campground.   The campsites here around Minneapolis are largely county parks and many have a one week maximum.  Since we are here for our daughter’s wedding we really wanted something that had a longer time frame available along with full hookups.  In retrospect I would have probably made a different choice since it is $32 a night to stay here, but the decision was made several months ago before we had solar and weren’t comfortable having less hookups.  I wouldn’t mind the cost if the campground was top-notch, but I have to say I am disappointed.  The park has extensive trails and waterways but they are all separate (many across the street) from the campground.   The campground itself has some deep spaces but the sites are in close proximity to each other with no separation (ie: trees, brush etc.)   My main complaint though is the staff.  Every interaction has been slightly unpleasant and there is one gentleman in particular who has been pretty aggressive with enforcing the “rules.” First he made Lee take down our small sign stating we had a RV Tech business claiming a local  city ordinance against it.  Then on Sunday afternoon he came to our site, asking why we hadn’t left yet since check out time was 11am.  When Lee stated we were here for two weeks, he said no you are not site 8 is checking out today.  It’s worth mentioning that as he was speaking he was standing next to the marker showing we were in site 7.   When we tried to buy wood at the camp store we were told they could only take cash between 8am -10am, and they take no other forms of payment.  (Obviously they have had some sort of issue).  They did give us wood and a slip so we could pay in the morning.  The larger issue with the wood is it’s $5 per very small bundle here and a $1,000 fine if you bring in outside wood, which they strictly enforce.   Lee asked where he could buy wood in bulk since we would be staying here for 2 weeks and received no recommendations,  other than to look online,  for a certified vendor.   As a side note it took Lee several hours and a 40 minute drive to find a certified vendor but at least the wood was certified and very, very inexpensive. So overall, I am not thrilled,  but since it’s more about my daughter and less about where we sleep, it will serve it’s purpose. 

Speaking of my daughter, her fiance Micah and she came to see us the evening we arrived and after catching up a bit we got down to work planning the wedding.  Let me say upfront that I am not going to share everything regarding this wedding.  It is Kat and Micah’s life and they have the right to some privacy.  I will be sharing the good moments of course, but as with all weddings I am sure there will be some craziness and  we will largely keep  those stories to ourselves…unless they are funny…then we will share them. Kat has done a solid job planning the wedding but there are still lots of details to be worked out so Lee and I jumped right in.  I have a project management background and Lee has tons of experience with live events so we bring that to the party.  But we are also in an area we aren’t familiar with and don’t have our contacts and resources to help as we did at Kyrston’s wedding.  Luckily Jim and Linda (Micah’s parents) are awesome people and they grew up here.  We decided to all meet at the venue at 5pm and I was really excited to see them again.  We stayed with them on their farm in our travel trailer almost two years ago and that experience is what really got us thinking about this as a lifestyle.  I will be forever grateful to them for that week and am thrilled to be working with them on the wedding.

But that was Sunday and first we had some free time on Saturday (Katy and Micah had another wedding they were attending) so we decided to visit the Caponi Art Park which was right around the corner from us.  We both like sculptures and the combination of grounds and sculptures is the best I have ever seen.  Caponi is a local artist who taught himself to carve stone.  The grounds surrounding his house  were turned into a free park for the public (donations accepted) and you can walk the grounds and see the meld of sculpture with nature.  At 89 he is still creative director of the nonprofit he helped create.  It was really lovely and all the sculptures can be touched which I found particularly appealing.   There are over 30 sculptures strategically placed throughout the grounds and here are a few pictures of my favorites.

The artists house made primarily from the materials on the property

The artists house made primarily from the materials on the property

Very cool balustrade

Very cool balustrade


I loved the snake

I loved the snake

Lee liked this sculpture about war

Lee liked this sculpture about war.  The red inside the helmets represents death and since the artist served in WWII (assigned as a driver/interpreter to the actual unit portrayed in the movie  Monuments  Men) we found it particularly impactful

 

 

This sculpture was stolen, held for ransom, thrown over a cliff, and ultimately returned to the artist

This sculpture was stolen, held for ransom, thrown over a cliff, and ultimately returned to the artist

Probably my favorite which shows the progression of man from walking upright to Einstein's Theory

Probably my favorite which shows the progression of man from walking upright to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity

 

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Lee was having a good time

Lee was having a good time

Another of Lee's favorites called The Crows

Another of Lee’s favorites called The Crows

 

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Sunday evening we drove to the venue, cleverly named Jean Acres after the owners.  Katy and Micah really liked the facility because it is very new to the wedding business and they allow the couple to have a ton of freedom in how they choose to use the property.  While this is a huge benefit it also caused some challenges as we had to figure out many things that more experienced venues have templates for (ie: where to put the table and chairs and where to hold the ceremony.)  Still, it’s worth the extra effort as the barn and grounds are unique and beautiful.  We were there for 3 hours trying to work out some of the details, but Jim and Linda were with us and they are nice people to try to figure this all out with.  Next week more wedding details to handle and hopefully we will get out a little and do something fun next weekend.

 

Katy and Micah talking to the owner James Jean (not making that up) in the barn.

Katy and Micah talking to the owner James Jean (not making that up) in the barn.

The upper level of the barn where dinner and dancing will be

The upper level of the barn where dinner and dancing will be

The downstairs stalls was converted into an awesome bar and party area

The downstairs stalls was converted into an awesome bar and party area

 

All the grounds around the house are available for use

All the grounds around the house are available for use

 

Jim, Linda, Lee, Micah, and Kat working out some details

Jim, Linda, Lee, Micah, and Kat working out some details

I love love this view

I love love this view

A potential wedding ceremony spot

A potential wedding ceremony spot

More beautiful views

More beautiful views

 

Oh one last thing I wanted to mention.  An RV pulled into the campground with this signage on it.  Have to say I love when people deck out their rigs for their businesses ever since we saw the Circus Cats bus in Orlando. They have a website called Go Pet Friendly that specializes in all things pet friendly when traveling.  Locations, travel tips, etiquette rules and a blog.  Seemed pretty cool so thought I would pass it along. I do think it is ironic that the camp host made Lee take down his tiny little RV Repair sign but this is ok lol, but more power to them and ultimately Lee picked up a job just from the signs we have on our truck which they didn’t say anything about. 

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Campground Reviews

Lebanon Hills Regional Campground   12100 Johnny Cake Ridge Road, Apple Valley  2 out of 5 pine cones

The campsites here around Minneapolis are largely county parks and many have a one week maximum.  This campground has a two week maximum with full hookups which is largely why we chose it.   It costs $32 a night to stay here, and has decent WiFi in the West Loop.    The park has extensive trails and waterways but most are all separate (across a busy street) from the campground.   The campground itself has some deep spaces but the sites are in close proximity to each other with little separation (ie: trees, brush etc.)   My main complaint though is the staff.  Every interaction has been slightly unpleasant and there is one gentleman in particular who has been pretty aggressive with enforcing the “rules.”  The worst incident was on our first Sunday he came up to our site and asked  why we hadn’t left yet since check out time was 11am.  When we stated  we were here for two weeks, he said no you are not… site 8 is checking out today.  It’s worth mentioning that as he was speaking he was standing next to the marker showing we were in site 7.  Wood is  $5 a bundle and there is a $1,000 fine if you bring in non certified  wood, which they strictly enforce.   When we asked where a certified vendor was so that we could buy in bulk we were told to look online.  It’s been a long time since we have been treated this rudely at a campsite and I would not return.   

RV Recipes

Wannabee Big Don Sub 

I am originally from Columbus, Ohio and I absolutely adore Donato’s Big Don Italian subs.  When I am in town they are the first thing that I eat, I’ve even dreamed about them.  The taste is tough to reproduce though but this recipe gets pretty darn close.  The quantities below are for one sub and can be multiplied accordingly. Keep in mind you have to have an actual oven or propane stove  for this one as a convection oven will not work. 

  • One Marzetti’s House Italian Dressing  packet  this is the secret to this recipe and you cannot substitute.  It has to be the packet version
  • 4 slices salami
  • 4 slices ham
  • 1 large deli slice provolone cheese (cut in half)
  • Shredded lettuce shredding definitely makes a difference
  • 2 Roma tomato slices has to be Roma 
  • Banana pepper slices optional
  • One seedless sub roll
  • Pam
  1. Preheat Broiler in an RV oven there is a broiler setting.  
  2. Slice roll in half long ways
  3. Place both pieces of roll cut side down on a cookie sheet sprayed with Pam
  4. Place on bottom of RV oven under the propane flame for 2 minutes until tops are cooked slightly but not burnt
  5. On bottom pieces of roll place in order some salad dressing, salami, ham, cheese, and peppers (is using)
  6. Place bottoms back into broiler for 2-3 minutes until edges of bread are brown and cheese is bubbling.  Do not burn
  7. Place 1/4 packet of dressing on top bun then lettuce then tomato.
  8. Place sandwich halves together along with remainder of dressing in the middle.  Heat under broiler for 1 minute
  9. Slice as shown below and enjoy!!  If you do it right the taste should explode in your mouth at the first bite!

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Chinese Seafood Nest

This one was quite a bit of work and has tons of ingredients, but the taste was really great.  Pretty close to what you get in a Chinese restaurant and I had fun making it

  • Vegetable oil
  •  1 pound Chinese egg noodles
  • 1 Tablespoon sesame seed oil
  • 2 Tablespoons fish sauce 
  • 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
  • 2 Tablespoons oyster sauce
  • 2 Tablespoons corn starch
  • 2 Tablespoons sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 Cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 small yellow onion, sliced
  • 3 oz Imitation Crab Meat
  • 4 oz Shrimp, peeled and de-veined
  • 3 oz Broccoli flowers, cut chunks bite sizes
  • 3 oz snow pea pods
  • 1 small can mushrooms
  • 4 Stalks green onion,chopped
  1. Prepare all ingredients in advance; mix fish sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, cornstarch, and sugar in a bowl for sauce
  2. Bring water to boil in a large pot and place loosened noodles in boiling water making sure they are covered
  3. Boil for 5 minutes then rinse in a colander and drain well; once drained mix sesame seed oil into noodles
  4. Place 3 TBL vegetable oil in a small skillet and heat to bubbling.  Add half the noodles covering the full bottom of the pan in an even layer
  5. Let noodles brown for approximately 5 minutes on medium heat; do not burn
  6. Flip noodle nest and cook another 5 minutes
  7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 above for second noodle nest
  8. Heat up a large skillet or wok.
  9. When skillet is hot, add 2 tablespoon vegetable oil, add garlic and yellow onion; cook 2-3 minutes until garlic is slightly brown and onion is translucent
  10. Add shrimp stirring continuously until shrimp turns darker color pink.
  11. Add broccoli, mushrooms, and imitation crab meat stirring until broccoli is slightly tender
  12. Add snow peas; do not over cook vegetables
  13. Add sauce and green onions, stir well
  14. Remove wok from heat and place seafood mix over noodle nests on plates.

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First Time Wally Docking

For over a year now we have been hearing people talking about  Wallydocking, which is staying overnight in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  Now that we have our solar in place, I was very interested in trying it since it seems like a way to keep campground costs low.  Plus sometimes there may not be anywhere else available to stay so it is really good that that is an option. This is our experience and please keep in mind yours may vary.  Weather, location, type of camper, and personal preference all play a huge roll here and I can guarantee on this particular issue Your Mileage Will Vary.  YMWV!!

Let me back up a bit first.  The trip started out well enough. We said goodbye to DeDe and Denny and were sad that we were leaving.  They have been so wonderful to us through this whole experience, but we were also excited about getting to Minneapolis to be with Katy…our middle daughter who is getting married in July.  This lifestyle is enabling us to physically be with her for a month around the wedding and what a gift that is.  I helped plan my oldest daughter’s wedding from another state and at times that distance was a challenge.  We are hoping that being local will be a huge advantage.  Plus we love our kid and just want to hang out with her…bonus!!  Because in the past we have come close to running out of gas on a couple of occasions, Lee always plans our gas breaks in advance.  We love Flying J’s with RV lanes and we use the Flying J App to find the ones along our route.  Because they are not that common, Lee will often have us stop at 1/2 a tank or more to take advantage of the easy access in and out.  I highly recommend this by the way, it may seem counter intuitive to stop for gas early, but it really takes some stress out of driving longer distances.  Plus, although I generally use the bathroom in the rig at stops, they have the nicest public restrooms overall that I have seen and I’ll go inside and get a drink and stretch my legs a bit.  So at one of our stops I wandered inside and when I went to the bathroom I stood up and flushed the toilet.  To my horror the loose key that was inside my pocket fell out and was flushed down the toilet.  I immediately panicked and stuck my hand in there (I know, gross right? But it was very clean for a public toilet!) and when I couldn’t find it ran out and asked for help.  Then I went back to the stall and guarded it to make sure no one else used it.  Unfortunately an employee came in and said she was very sorry but this had happened before and there was nothing they could do because it was in the pipes.  So now I am truly shaken, thinking how I would get another key cut, was there a Ford dealership nearby etc.  Thankfully when I walked out to Lee he stayed calm.  He went into our rig and pretty quickly found the spare key.  Oh that’s right, we carry our home with us and Lee has never thrown away a key in his life, so of course he had it.  Yes it’s true, I married the right guy, and I can’t tell you how relieved I was.  Seriously the thought of being stranded in the parking lot had me in a panic, but luckily it was going to be ok.  I took a moment and said a prayer thanking God for looking out after idiots (that being me), and after Lee was sure my heart rate was back to normal we continued on down the road.

After that experience I was actually looking forward to stopping for the night and because we lost an hour due to changing to Central time we rolled into the Walmart around 3:30pm CST.  I had picked this particular Walmart because there were no inexpensive campgrounds nearby ($44 for the KOA and no state or city parks) and it had a separate parking lot that according to Google Maps was lined for trucks and RV’s. Also I had read a couple reviews online of people who had stayed there and it seemed OK.  What I wasn’t planning on was how hot a parking lot would be at 3:30pm.  When we got there, we lined up near the edge facing some trees and I turned the generator on for some AC to cool the inside of the rig.  Fifth Wheels are a metal box and can get pretty hot when you’re traveling so a little cool air is the way to go to quickly resolve that problem.  Our solar will run everything except the microwave and AC so it was time to use the propane generator a bit.  It was good actually as we have had it for 1-1/2 years now and rarely used it.  (That is not good by the way, as you are supposed to run them for an hour once a month, and we had not been very good on following that rule.) The generator started up with no problem and the inside quickly cooled down.  Lee went inside to get some bread and talk to the manager to get permission.  When he came back he said it was fine and the manager said we were welcome to stay and was very nice about it.  The general etiquette here is you ask permission and buy something in the store.  Some folks call ahead, a good practice, others wing it, but unless there is a city ordinance against it most Walmarts are very cool about it.  As a side note I have heard that many cities in Florida have banned it because too many people are doing it, but in most places it is allowed.  I use the Allstays App to target where the available Walmarts are, but then call to confirm.

So we are there with permission to setup but it’s actually getting hotter (84 degrees and climbing) and since it’s a parking lot the heat is magnified.  We decided (and YMWV here) to leave the AC on until the day cooled off a little bit.  We had filled up our propane at the last stop, could exercise the generator a bit, and stay comfortable. Why not?  Lee turned on both AC’s (which wasn’t strictly necessary) and we settled in.  3-1/2 hours later the generator sputtered and stopped as we had depleted an entire tank of propane…and at 7pm it was still on the warmish side.  So here is where I got mad.  Once again a “free” place to camp had cost us something.  A tank of propane is not cheap, costing us around $20 with our Good Sam lifetime membership (which gives us a 10 cent per gallon discount at Pilot and Flying J) and more importantly, once again conventional wisdom had left something out. I know many people might shop or eat out during the hottest part of the day, but that also includes incremental cost and in my mind sort of defeats the purpose of an economical overnight stay.   Because we have not always been campers, we do a lot of research before trying new things.  This research includes reading forums, blogs, and most importantly, talking to people.  Once we see a pattern of consensus we make decisions based on common sense and that information.  It’s not that people are deliberately being misleading, but many folks tend to sugarcoat the negative aspects of this lifestyle. That makes me crazy.  I can’t make good decisions or manage risk without solid information. The negative parts of an experience are equally, if not more important, in my mind to helping others.  That’s why I try to talk about all of my experience; warts and all.  I don’t enjoy letting people know when I was an idiot, but if it helps someone else avoid that mistake then its worth it.  OK, sorry, rant done.

So, we had bumped into two pieces of conventional wisdom being in seemingly total contradiction.  The first is: Drive short days and try to stop early in the day to miss the worst traffic.  The second: Walmart is an economical alternative to a campground stay for overnight travel. Now, if we traveled later in the day, or the weather was nicer, that would have been the case (that’s where location and weather come in), but it does get hotter in a parking lot than in a campground so you should definitely take that into consideration.  Finally, I will say for us safety was a concern.  Some folks could not care less about this and I think if I was in a Class A it would be less of an issue, but we have to open up to some extent to make sleeping work and our windows are close to ground level.  Since we had established it was too expensive to run the air all night that meant windows open and fans for air flow.  This worked fine from a temperature perspective but left us feeling more exposed.  Plus you want to lower the blinds to stop the parking lot light which means less air flow.  There was some walk by traffic as well from random people walking along the sidewalk and the later it got the more nervous Lee was about being outside.  It actually got better from this perspective when the trucks starting showing up late in the evening because we were surrounded (behind and beside) by large semi trucks.  They tend to leave their engines running non stop, and very soon the noise and smell started to get to me a bit.  From a safety perspective truck stops (in Lee’s opinion) are much safer, but I had vetoed this idea due to noise and fumes.  Imagine my surprise when the Walmart parking lot started filling up with semi’s.  Don’t get me wrong, I like truckers.  Generally they are good road companions and are nice people, but I was suprised by the quantity of them at this stop as no one had ever said this would happen.  I was picturing all RV’s (and there were certainly some of those..mainly Class A’s) but not the trucks.  So we closed up the windows that were a safety concern and tried to get some sleep.  Neither one of us slept well and I woke up around 5am to the smell of diesel fumes wafting through my bedroom window…aaaah.

So why am I so annoyed?  Well if someone had said, “Tracy you can stay overnight in a Walmart parking lot but it will cost you $19 in propane, trucks will be there, and you won’t feel safe.” I would have looked harder for an alternative solution.  Am I glad we did this?  Absolutely.  It was an important piece of information that we needed to understand our options going forward, but will I do it frequently in the future? God, I hope not.

Walmart parking lot

Walmart parking lot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The good news though, is our second night stay was in completely different from our Wally Docking experience. I had done some research and found Pleasant Creek  State Park in Iowa.  (As a side note, I really enjoyed driving through Iowa.  Some folks talk about farmland as if it is boring, but I say look a little closer.  The fields and houses are beautiful and serve the function of feeding us all.  Plus it does my mid-western heart good to see so much industry happening.)  It’s a shame we couldn’t spend more time there and I definitely want to come back, because it really seems like my kind of place.  So it was at the end of a pleasant drive when we pulled up.  For the first time I had not booked a particular site.  They had a reservation system which showed lots of openings and since we wanted to try looking at the sites and picking one we decided to roll the dice.  It turned out fine, with several openings (although many of the best spots were reserved) and we ended up in Site 19.  We were a little taken aback though when we saw there was no camp office just a small booth with envelopes for cash and a slip you put into your site number.  I had read about this in Howard’s blog but to be honest didn’t really get it, and thankfully Lee had a $20.  The campsites were only $16 for the night (50 amp electric only), but with the view below we didn’t mind paying $20 at all.  Next time I will have change though!

View from site 19

View from site 19

Just to be sure we were doing it right, we walked over to the camp hosts to verify and Jeff after a minute said, “Wait a minute.  I recognize you…I’ve seen your blog.”  That was so nice, and very unexpected.  They were incredibly friendly, helping us select the best site that was available and offering to come down and chat later in the evening.  They have been full timing for three years and this is their second year camp hosting in Iowa so they can be near their grand kids in Cedar Rapids.  Jeff is a retired firefighter and he and his wife have spent quite a bit of time in Florida.  They like camp hosting so we picked their brain about how that experience was.  They are big fans of work kamping, in particular volunteering in State Parks where the work requirements are minimal.   Their blog is called Crazy Marlins   if you want to check it out.  Very nice people and to be honest it’s a bit of an ego boost to be recognized like that so this experience was starting out waaay better than the Walmart night.  Then it got really great.  I took a walk to take some pictures and saw what an amazing park it is.  We would definitely come back here.  There is no WiFi or full hookups but the views are great and the park is large and very friendly.  They have a full beach, are very fisherman friendly, and boat docks with lots of paddling opportunities.  It’s a very nice recreation area and  you absolutely can’t beat the price!!  But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself.

 

Y424 Y426

Y431

You can see our camper on the hill, top center of pic

 

Y458

Beautiful wildflowers everywhere as part of their Prairie Restoration project

View from best campsite #69...amazing

View from best campsite #69…amazing

Even has a helipad...that's a first for me

Even has a helipad…that’s a first for me

 

I really like these recycle bins because they said where the money was going

I really like these recycle bins because they said where the money was going

Lessons Learned

  • Know where your spare car key is, and have it  in an easily accessible place
  • Do NOT carry a loose key in your pocket if you are going into a restroom.
  • Running the AC with a propane generator takes a lot of propane.
  • Carry exact change for campsites that requires an envelope with cash payment
  • For us, a reasonably priced campground would always be preferable to a Walmart.

Campground Review

Pleasant Creek State Park   4530 McClintock Rd, Palo, IA   4 out of 5 pine cones

The views are great and the recreation park is large and very friendly.  They have a full beach, are very fisherman friendly, and boat docks with lots of paddling opportunities. The campsites were only $16 for the night (50 amp electric only) and they have an envelope system where you pay cash and select your spot.  You can also reserve online.  The camp hosts were very friendly and the people who stayed there around us were considerate.  There is no WiFi but the AT&T cell coverage was ok.  We stayed in site #19 which was a very large pull through site with a nice view of the lake, but Site #69 has the best views in the park. Would have liked to stay here longer and definitely will come back.

 

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