Continuing Our Summer Visit to Ohio

 We have had a little storm damage, a lot of heat, and car problems but so far have really enjoyed our visits with family and friends this summer.  We have been in Ohio since early June and in a little over two month have had a drought, strong winds, heavy rain and of course a lot of good times.  We started our summer travel in Ohio and spent a few days with Pat's brother Chas and Sharon before heading up to Kenton to visit George's family while hooking up at his brother Dick's home.  We left Dick and Karen to go over to Mercer and visit with Pat's other brother, Clyde.  We were hoping to help him with a habitat house but it never happened, a mix up in zoning so we went back to Dick and Karen's to attend the Cannode Christmas in July celebration at George's sister, Patsy's house.   Here are a few pictures of our summer adventures in Ohio.

George relaxing in Clyde and Rose's pool

Dinner with Patsy, Bob, Dick,  Karen, and Todd!

George teeing off!!!

Joyce Hayes hitting another long drive with Pat taking lessons!!!

Denny and Joyce Dyer, Bobbi Wiley and us having a great Pizza together!

 

Another day on the course with Chuck, Dick and George posing.

Christmas in July - George with his sister, Patsy

Michelle and Pat enjoying a smile

Chuck needs his nourishment

Are we ever going to eat - Pat will go check on it while Michelle, Karen and Bob await the main event!!!

Looks like Rouge's Gallery!!!

The Christmas in July celebration brought together the Cannode clan, but as with any family get together, we missed a few because of work and other commitments (sports) but we had a great turnout and we were thankful to see so many of our family members.

As we were preparing to drive over to Decatur, Indiana to repair our motor home from the storm in late June, we got word that George's high school friends had a motorcycle accident in Alabama. We are ending this blog with very sad news and.   Sandy (Barnes) and Barney Jackson were traveling back from Wyoming on their trike when they were involved in a horrible accident. Sandy was thrown from the trike on I-20 in Alabama and died as a result of her injuries, Barney is in a coma and is in intensive care with numerous broken bones and extreme road rash. Our prayers are with the family and of course Barney. Barney and Sandy were high school sweethearts and enjoyed a long loving marriage.   Please say a little prayer for the Jackson family and for Barney's rapid recovery from this horrible accident.

Windy Day in OHIO

Did we ever mention that the reason we love to travel in our motorhome was that if we did not like the weather; we would move.  That is not always true.  As we were enjoying a beautiful day at Pat's brother's house (Clyde and Rose's ) the sky got really dark and within seconds a 92 mile an hour wind hit us.  No time to run and hide, move the motor home or seek shelter.  Before we knew it a 150 year old tree deposited two of it very large branches on top of the motor home.  George was standing next to the motor home and only realized the tree was on the motor home when he looked up and saw the tree.  This storm covered an area from Fort Wayne, Ind to Washington DC.  Wow!  We were lucky and thanked God that no one was hurt, and damage was limited to the  motor home roof, slide out and slide out cover (to the best of our knowledge), a few trees and Clyde's roof.  Just a few minutes before the high winds, George ask Clyde if there was anything he could do to help him.  Now he does not have to ask ... Clyde's roof has extensive damage as well as many of his trees lost their branches.  We were without power for two days but Clyde has a generator and so do we.   We will be busy for a few days cleaning up and cutting wood.

 

Ouch!!!  Those branches are at least 15 inches in diameter!

That is a 30 foot drop for those branches!

It took us a day and half to get the branches off the motorhome and it was not easy!!!  But as George said, "That is why we have insurance".  When he called our State Farm agent, she was the best!  They responded quickly and professionally, in short they have been great!  George said he will take back everything he has ever said about insurance companies...(not really but he should).

Let's talk about a better day!  Before going over to Clyde and Rose's, we drove down to Marysville and saw our friend of 50 plus years, Bobbi Wiley.  Although her schedule is very busy, she treated us like royality and took us to lunch before she had to go to work.  We know "work" is a four letter word and this is a family blog but there are some people who still do that type of thing and it would appear that Bobbi actually likes it.  Go figure!!!  It is always great to spend time with her, she has not changed on bit from High School. 

 

Two great looking "young ladies"!!!

The next two pictures are posted here for no reason..... just because! We enjoy them and hope you do also!  After our little adventure with the tree gods, looking at these two young guys' pictures sure brightened our day!! 

Kasey eating watermellon

Karsten eating watermellon

No matter the problems of the day, we think everyday is a blessing and our friends and family make life worth all the minor problems we might encounter.  Have a great summer -- we will continue our Ohio visit and report to you our adventures in the backyard!!!

Ohio

Our summer schedule of course has changed and we headed East and not West.  We left San Diego with great news, we got the monetary award we wanted but collection from the crooks is a way different matter as we have discovered the past few weeks.  The crooks that defrauded us have, get this --- one of them has a tax lien of over $425,000 , the other one has 8 tax liens from both the federal and state IRS.  OK, my question is why are they not in jail???  Didn't Al Capone go to jail for tax evasion?  Anyway, we are contacting another lawyer to see what recourse we have now!  We will see.

We are now in Ohio.  On our way east we stopped off to see Lenny and Mattie Gray in Illinois, we worked with them at Chanute AFB, in the 1980s.  They have not changed much and it was amazing how much our outlook on raising children and grandchildren are the same.  I guess most grandparents think the same way...you will always do for your grand kids because they are "grand"!  When we were raising our children, we were so busy with everyday life that we did not appreciate how fast our kids would grow up.  Now we do not want to miss a minute watching the grand kids explore, learn new things and grow.

Lennie and Mattie with Pat at the Red Lobster

We are not the only RVers in the family, Clyde and Rose, Charlie and Sharon (Pat's brothers and their wives) enjoying RVing and camping.  We joined them for a day in Indiana while they were camping and enjoying the outdoors living. 

Rose, Clyde and Pat relaxing by the camper

Sharon and Chas relaxing by their camper

It is always a must to relax with George's sister Patsy.  Of course it is also great to enjoy Patsy's great cooking, including Pot Pie (some call it dumplings) and her famous homemade noodles and fried chicken.  The only problem is George's brothers, Dick and Chuck also like Pot Pie and they were also invited for supper.  George thinks it is a challenge to see who can eat the most.  Needless to say - no leftovers after these boys sit down and eat.

Pat, Dick, Karen, Patsy, Bob, Paula and Chuck enjoying a Cannode favorite - Pot pie!

Patsy and Pat relaxing by the pool

Golf is always on the agenda when we are in Ohio and the weather could not have been better for a few rounds.

George can't believe Todd, George's nephew hit the ball that far! 

There is something about the Kenton High School Class of 1965 that is special.  Whenever we are in town, there is a party!  You have to wonder if they just party all the time or do they just use the excuse that a classmate is in town.

Can you believe that these people were ever in High School?  They have gray hair!

Good friends, Bobbi and Jim sharing a laugh...but who are laughing at?

The classmates of KSHS Class of 1965 - Steve Merchant (the organizer), George, Jane Case (all the way from Columbus), Mike Boyle (still the tallest), Bobbi Wiley (drove down from Marysville), Jim Davis, Jerry Dick, Doug Williams (always tanned)...it is amazing to us that although we graduated a few years back (47 years ago) these friends never forget and when together they always make you feel like you never left.

We debated if we should come back to Ohio this summer but spending time with family and friends makes it very worthwhile.  We are enjoying our stay at George's brother's house.  There is golf almost everyday, motor scooter riding, morning walks and great food.  Life is good!  We will be traveling over to Pat's brother's house next week.  We will be helping Pat's brother, Clyde with a habitat house hopefully starting next week.  We also plan to travel to Pennsylvania and Virginia later this summer but for now we are enjoying old friends and family in Kenton, Ohio-- it doesn't get much better than this!!!! 

San Diego with David

It is seldom that we get to travel and have our son David join us, but this trip is the exception.  We came to San Diego to talk to a judge about awarding us financial restitution after being defraud by a couple of crooks.  As I posted before, we won the case over 4 years ago but have never had damages awarded.  That will be heard tomorrow morning at 1000 o'clock and David will be briefing the judge and stating our case for a monetary award.  But that is not what this blog is about.  This blog is to thank David for coming out here and helping us through this ordeal.  We all got to enjoy a few days together before we attend to the more serious part of the trip tomorrow and we have had a wonderful time exploring the backyards of San Diego.  David really does not like any part of California but we think he has enjoyed the past few days.  He has had us take two pictures of him every time we go anywhere...one that demonstrates how unhappy he is here (staged for his friends in Denver)  and a real one with him enjoying himself.  If you look at his FB pictures you would think that he is very unhappy but we posted a few pictures below of all of us enjoying the sights of San Diego and the surrounding area.

David and Pat on the San Diego harbor. 

The Pacific coast and shoreline are beautiful, even on an overcast day.  The locals call this Gray May and it is followed by June Gloom!  You might want to think about that when you visit San Diego in the future.

David on the USS Midway - one of the highlights of our backyard visit downtown and a great tribute to America's greatest generation.

David and George enjoying beach across the road from our suite on Coronado Island.  Do you notice George has a warm jacket on and David is in a tee shirt?  It is a cool 62 degrees! 

One of the views from our balcony at the Naval Amphibious Base on Coronado

 Island across the bay from San Diego

 David smiling, beautiful flowers and the Pacific Ocean...does it get any better than this?

The San Diego-Coronado Bridge our gateway to San Diego.

We have really enjoyed the past few days with David in San Diego.  We hope tomorrow will bring great news but whatever the Judge decides; at least we can close this chapter of our lives and move on.  Having David fly out here has been great for us and we hope for him also.  Tomorrow night we will celebrate (no matter what the Judge decides) with David and our friends Tom and Maryann Graue, who will arrive tomorrow afternoon from Tucson.  Saturday, David flys back to Denver and we will saddle up and head east also. 

We have changed our travel plans from going up the coast to Seattle and the northwest and decided to return to Colorado for a few days before it is on to Ohio for the summer.  For our friends in the northwest, you get a reprieve this year but to our friends and family in Ohio... we are coming back!  I may have mentioned this before but, "you see what happens when you treat visitors really good --- you can't get rid of them"!

 

Our summer plans include helping Pat's brother, Clyde and his son Tony build a habitat house for Tony and his wife , checking in on Pat's brother, Chaz, who had major surgery, and attending the Cannode Christmas in July celebration along with playing a few rounds of golf.  We also plan a side trip to visit with Tom and Maryann (they should get tired of seeing us this year) who will be in Pennsylvania for the summer visiting with Maryann's family   It is great to have the flexibility to change our plans and it is wonderful to be able to see our families and friends in Ohio.   The northwest will be there for a while and we still plan on spending time exploring it's backyards.  . 

 Life is great, if you don't take it too seriously!!! 

ON THE ROAD TO SAN DIEGO

The chemo is done for another 6 months and our stay in Colorado has come to a close.   After spending as much time as possible with the family we had to depart and start our trip to San Diego and our long awaited court date.  Some of you may know that about three and half years ago we were defrauded out of a lot of money with David's business.  We took the crooks to court and won our lawsuit over three years ago.  But.......that is not the end of the story.  It seems the judge could not decided on the amount of grief the bastards caused us nor could she decide on the appropriate amount of damages.  She wanted to hear from George personally.  Hence, we are on are way to to meet our court date on May 25th.  Being the opprotunist that we are, we want to make the best out of any situation.  We had an option to either go through Las Vegas, NV or Las Vegas, New Mexico.  We chose Las Vegas, New Mexico (look it up there really is a Las Vegas, New Mexico!  So we planned stops in Albuquerque and Tucson to see our long time friends.

It is always wonderful us to visit with Mike and Rita (Albuquerque) and Tom and Maryann (Tucson) for any occasion but since we had this opprotunity, we wanted to stop for a few days and just relax with our long time friends.  Visiting with them is like time has stood still and we always take up where we left off the last time we passed their way.  Good friends like these four just don't fall off trees, they are like the strong branches of a mighty oak that bind our lives together and make us all a part of each other's lives.   Friends and family are God's gift to each of us and no matter how rich or poor you are, friends and family are the treasures of your life.

Our star witness for the court date in San Diego, giving us a some clothes to take with us.  David agreed to fly out and tell the judge the whole story about the crooks who defrauded us over three years ago.

Mike, Rita, and Pat waiting for a table at El Pinto.  If you get to Albuquerque this is a must place to eat!

George, Rita and Pat enjoying time together, it just doesn't get better than visiting friends!

Maryann and Pat relaxing or are they solving the world's problems?

Tom grilling steaks -- they really took care of us!   By the way Tom....the steaks were great!

Tom washing our car with George and Pat giving him some advice.

Pat playing golf in Tucson - Good form Pat!

We hope tht all goes well in San Diego and we will put that chapter of our lives behind us and get to move on.  We also want to thank David, Kris and Amy for the phone calls and Skyping us on a daily basis --- that makes this trip a little easier.  Knowing that family loves you and goes out of their way to make you feel better each day is a blessing we do not take lightly.  If you have sons and daughters we urge you to take a minute and let them know that you love and appreicate them.  .As we visit or revisit the backyards of America we hope you stay tuned to our little piece of the world and that you too are living life to the fullest ---- there is just no other way to enjoy your life1

Mom, Dad,Grandma and Grandpa

A little different blog today.  We have spent the last several weeks helping our family.  David's move to Denver metro, Kris and Amy needed a shed built and the grand kids needed someone to watch over them and love them to pieces.  That is where we come in -- since we travel a lot, when we are with the family we really like to spend time with them and help them in any way we can, even if it is just sitting around talking about the world's problems and drinking a beer.

After the chemo treatments we were put to work helping David, cleaning his old apartment, packing his things to move, getting rid of some things,  and finally the move.  With David working 10 hour days, and going to school three days a week it was our pleasure to help him out.  We believe David is headed in the right direction  with his life and was so glad we were there for him.  He has picked himself up by his shoestrings after the lowest point in his life, with his wife leaving him.  He has made some really good friends, studying hard and getting great grades in some pretty hard computer courses, working to move up in the company and all the while finding time to be with family and friends; he is forging ahead. The future looks pretty bright and he is hard at work to make it brighter.  Oh, did I mention that we are pretty proud of him.  He has now moved into a one bedroom apartment that is perfect for his life style.  He is within a two minute walk to the light rail (easy access to the downtown nightlife and to his work), a couple blocks from college, a couple blocks to where his friends live, and across the street from some really nice restaurants.  He has a good reliable car and fixed his scooter.  Life is getting better!!!

Kris and Amy celebrated their 10th anniversary with a trip to San Francisco and the wine regions of northern California.  We were able to help them by watching the boys for a few days while they were off to drink a little wine and fall in love all over again.  While they were gone we had to play with the  grand boys all day and cuddle with them at night, such hard work.  Of course, Kris and Amy came back and we lost that job.  If there was a consolation, Amy said it took a week to get the boys back into their routine.  Ha! Ha!  We asked Kris if there was anything else we could do to help out before we started down the road again.  Be very careful of what you ask for, you might get it.    A new shed, work on the car and truck, get rid of some of our stuff and some of their stuff stored in their basement, have a garage sale and just hang around and enjoy their company. 

We want to post a few pictures of our last few weeks just so you know how hard it is to do the things we do...as a friend of ours once said, "What are the rich people doing now...I'll bet they are not having half the fun we are right now".  We keep saying to him, "We are the rich people, we have wonderful friends and family and we love them and our life".

Relaxing in Kris and Amy's driveway

Karsten do you like Cool Whip?

Amy, the stroller is for the boys!!!!

Grandpa's helper, Kasey hammering the stake!

Grandma - It is time for a snack!

Everyone has to help dig our the slope for the shed!

Kris and Dad working together to reinforce the space for the shed

Priceless!

Kris and Pat working on the shed

The shed is done, all the workers are smiling - Amy's taking the pic

Grandpa, Dad , Kasey and Karsten eating watermelon!

Grandpa and Karsten learning how to hit T-Ball

Grandma the better teacher - Karsten hitting the ball

Kasey found a bug -- He really likes to figure things out!

We are traveling without our friends - Bob and Donna!  They have decided to hang it up, this time for real.  They are going to live in Hawaii and are now making plans to

move to the islands.  We wish them all the best --Aloha friends!!!!

We have so many pictures of our last few weeks but we neglected to get pictures of David's new pad and our time with him -- we will make up for that in our next blog!  We get to see him one more time before we post our next blog and we will include some pictures just for our friends and family who have not seen him in a few years.  Sorry David you must let us take a few pictures!

As we get ready to drive to California, we thought we would give you a hint of our upcoming trip.  We will stop in Albuquerque to visit with our friends, Mike and Rita!  Hope they put up with us for a few days.  We plan on staying in Tucson with our friends, Tom and Maryann for a few days before we drive over to San Diego.  In San Diego, David will fly in for a few days to visit with us, why you ask???  We have a court date  to settle a three year old lawsuit we brought against some crooks who defrauded us!   Wish us luck with the Judge!