Leaving Ohio and slowing heading back to Colorado

We left George's sister's house with rain trailing us all the way to Pat's brother's house in Mercer, Ohio.  It seems that rain followed us the entire month of September.  With just three rounds of golf for the entire month, (we slogged through wet fairways on all three days) we spent a very wet month in Ohio.  While at Clyde and Rose's house we did managed to fix our TV antenna, correct our fogged up headlights on the Motor home and Jeep, fix our rear bedroom slideout's switch and drink more than a few beers.  Thanks Clyde for all your help.

Relaxing with Clyde and Rose on their back patio

With all the rain you would expect a rainbow to appear if the sun ever came out - it did the day we left and we were rewarded with a double rainbow that seemed to end over Clyde and Rose's house.

A double rainbow over Clyde and Rose's house

One of our goals when we came back to Ohio was to stop off in Decatur, Indiana and have the Fleetwood people look at our motor home.  We have had a water leak on our rear slide causing us to always tilt the motor home about 1 degree off level to prevent water dripping into the coach.  We are happy to report the leak was fixed and we got some tips on other issues we had so we are now very happy campers.  The people at Fleetwood were very professional and took extra care to ensure we were satisfied.  We also hooked up with Bob and Donna (our very good friends and traveling companions).  They were able to park at the Fleetwood facility with us as we planned our return trip to Colorado.  We could not decided where we wanted to go next but decided to take I-70 back to Colorado and stop a few places on the way back.  Our first stop was Scott Air Force Base just outside St Louis.  We sit up the motor homes at Scott and decided to go into St Louis in the morning.  Union Station in St. Louis was renovated into a shopping center and if you know anything about us you know that we will look for a nice shopping experience.  After the Union Station visit we drove down to the Gateway to the West and the mighty Mississippi for lunch.  After lunch we took a riverboat trip on the Mississippi which proved to be a neat way to spend the afternoon.  Off we went for a paddle boat (the paddles did not move) ride on the Mississippi river aboard the Mark Twain.

St Louis Union Station

The Mark Twain Paddle boat on the Mississippi River

Traveling down the Mississippi on the Mark Twain

Gateway to the West

The Arch from a side view on the Mississippi - it looks like the Washington monument does it?

We are going to stay in the St Louis area for a few days.  Like so many backyards in the USA, middle America is beautiful!  We will explore the backyards in this area and let you know what we are up to.  As summer turns to fall bringing the beauty of the fall with trees turning their green leaves to the golden autumn colors we certainly appreciate the landscapes of America.  Stay tuned as we march back to Colorado, we will be of course visiting our doctors but more importantly we will get the chance to visit our son's family, the grand boys and our Colorado friends.  We will camp at the USAF Academy where again we will enjoy the sights of the beautiful Rocky Mountains.

In closing we want to thank all of our friends and family for their hospitality.  Because of each of you,  we enjoyed our brief visit back to our homeland (despite the horrible weather).  Thanks for the tomatoes, thanks for the drinks, thanks for getting together as family and friends - you all make life very special. 

Until next time,  take care of yourselves!

Family and Friends in Kenton, Ohio

We made it back to Ohio.  We stopped off at  Chas and Sharon's house for a few days, a few beers and some needed mechanical repairs.   We also got to visited with Kelsey and Adien.  It was really nice to spend some time to just relax with family.  Chas also helped us out again with his expertise and knowledge.  We had a engine problem in Northern Arizonia and had a mechanic look at it ....he charged us $120.00 and could not find anything wrong with the motorhome, Chas looked at it for less than 5 minutes and told us that we only needed to replace the battery and the motorhome was fixed!  He amazes us everytime he helps us out.  Thank you Chaz!!!!  Again !!!!

We left Chas and Sharon when they returned to work and we headed north to George's sister, Patsy's house.  We arrived in rain and the cruddy weather stayed with us for a few days.  The weather cleared up on just in time to have a family dinner.  Patsy cooked up a Cannode favorite meal, Beef Pot pie.  This is basically beef and rolled dough but it taste great. 

Relaxing and catching up after a great meal -- Thanks Patsy

We came back to celebrate with both family and friends.  Tonight, we got together with old friends,

George has known some of these friends for over 50 years.  We all got together at a resturant and had a great time.  We enjoyed catching up and even learning new things that we did not know about a few of them.  For instance, our friend Pam said "with a straight face", she did not drink very much even though she had a Margarita in her hand at the time, so for the rest of the night we all picked on her with every story being injected with the phrase "and of course Pam was drinking"?   So Pam tell us, does your grandchildren know about your drinking problem?

A rose between two thorns --  Bobbi, Pat and George

Jim and Jayma enjoying the night

Was it really that funny Jim and Pam?

A true rose between two old guys --- Mike, Pat and George

Steve and Bobbi seemed to be enjoying the gathering

See Pam, I told you that we would post this picture of your molar problem!

We had so much fun with our friends and we are not done yet.  We will have a chance to play some golf with a few of them tomorrow.  It does not matter who is low, it just matters that we will be together and share time together.  It is hard to believe that it has been over 45 years since we were all together, it seems that we picked up just as if we never left.

We will be leaving the Kenton area on Sept 19th to drive over to Pat's brother's house for more family time.  While we are in the Mercer area we will also be visiting more firends so stay tuned for another update on our celebrations with family and friends.