2013 Summer to Fall

Thank goodness for loving to take pictures in recording our history to have a jolt from a friend that I had not updated this blog since July.  Looking through the picture folder and the blog I see that he has been observant. 

When we last left a post on Retired Teachers at Recess we were anticipating stopping in Manchester, IA for the Midwest area rally.  Charles did direct the last week of July.  We then returned to our driveway inTN.
http://www.frustratedmaestros.blogspot.com/

In mid-August, 2013, we arrived in Red Bay, AL in the town where our Tiffin coach was built in 2003.  We had previously contracted with an independent business to have our peeling decals painted on this bus.
 






 

 We also worked with Chris Berry’s Woodworking business to replace our very dirty and worn valances.  He built beautiful valances from Alder wood. We love them.      

September 6-9, 2013 we hosted Gary and Corinne Robinson from California.  Gary plays trumpet and Corinne sings in the Frustrated Maestros.  Gary and Charles enjoyed playing together in Gillette in June.  Knowing that the Robinsons were headed east and returning via KY Charles invited them to stop to see us.  It was a good opportunity to continue to visit and enjoy some trumpet-trombone duets.

There is constant preparation of the Maestro music that Charles directs.  He and our house kitty,Lulu, write many notes in his shop.     As we post this blog we are headed to Gettysburg, PA for Music Camp for a week.  Then follows the GEAR rally in York, PA.  Charles is directing both of these.  At GEAR the Frustrated Maestros will provide evening entertainment providing dance music.  This “Sock Hop at the Ice Cream Shop” combines the rally ice cream social and dancing to 50s-60s tunes providded by the Maestros.  Again…there is much preparation to have music ready. Charles does have music prep help with two Maestros who arrange and send music via pdf in E mail.



Travels Summer 2013

June 4, 2013 arrived and we were on our way with the final destination Gillette, WY on June 14. We got stopped in Columbia, MO at Cummins for a generator repair.  But…we were on our way.  We made it!... for a week of Family Motor Coach International convention and a week of Frustrated Maestro playing.  Here’s how we got there.

 A ride across Kansas almost dictates a stop in Abilene at the Greyhound Hall of Fame and the Eisenhower Complex.  This is our third stop since 2002 when we were greyhound-less!  Having met a Canadian grey at Amana RV Park, IA we were smitten.  By our return trip in 2007 we had Trixie and Libby.  This trip we made pictures of Heidi and Daisy.  Heidi was very curious about the statue of a grey and Eisenhower.

 

We drove around Abilene seeing lots of old bldgs. These revealed a time of more productivity and bustle.  RRs were built to attract folks to the cows that were driven from TX.  Abilene became a saloon shooting city…lots of crime.  This is a recreation of the Old Abilene village.

Our next stop was at Johnson Lake State Park, Lexington, NE on June 9 and 10.  Knowing we were stopping at a body of water we anticipated unloading the kayak from the Honda.  As we drove in the huge lake was white capping!  The furious water slowed a bit but the wind kept it churned late into the evening and into the mornings.  Boat stayed high and dry.  We did discover a nice, concrete and long trail across the highway.  Roads in the small campground were a crushed gravel which meant every foot step had to be dug out.   

June 11, 2013 arrived in Sidney, NE at the original Cabela’s Outfitter Store.  Complete with a full service campground and showers and laundry we indulged ourselves in shopping in Cabela’s.  Got Charles a much needed replacement life vest.  Supper was elk and bison burgers in our own dining room.  A long talk with son Kevin from our home in Franklin made the evening complete.  The beautifully landscaped walking trail around a pond were well used in the evening and next morning by us.

June 12 and 13, 2013 we met Nat and Cynthia Colter as their guests at Hart Ranch in Rapid City, SD.  We enjoyed being with these folks and caravanning into Gillette, WY on June 14 for our destination of the FMCA’s International event.  Barbara Covard and Jack Nelson joined our caravan from Rapid City, SD.  

June 14-22, 2013 we were at the Cam-plex, Gillette, WY for the International Family Motor Coach Association event.  Charles played his trombone and was a part of the jazz group. He did direct 3 numbers for soloist  Bruce Miller, Sally Friedlander and Cynthia Colter.

Many Maestros from the west coast were present and it was fun to meet in person many of these folks.  Gary and Corrine Robinson from the Maestro Original Chapter in California were there and on a trip east afterwards.  They will visit us in September.  This was the 50ieth Anniversary of the founding FMCA.  Please visit All Things Frustrated Maestro   .   Our bikes were our needed transportation in this huge facility.  About 2500 coaches arrived.      

We must mention a strong hail storm while at Gillette!  This event made us quickly bring in our rooms and left the fins on the AC units closed.  Chas has since tediously opened them.  Following this event we enjoyed eating out at Applebees with several Maestro couples: Bruce and Barbara Miller, Nat and Cynthia Colter, Dick and Marge Reid, and Barbara Covard and Jack Nelson.   

From June 22 thru 27, 2013 we “settled down” in four campgrounds. June 22 we revisited Sundance, WY and tried to recreate a memory of six years.  Naturally the campground had grown and changed.  We were just 3 miles out of Sundance and via car went in to the historic town of the Sundance Kid and his rouge adventures to walk.  Again we visited Devil’s Tower.

June 25 and 26, 2013 we were plugged up on the banks of the Missouri River at Chamberlain, SD.  This formerly city park, now privately run, provided us with wonderful places to walk.  However, once again the frantic Missouri River kept our kayak high and dry on the Honda.

    

June 27, 2013 we arrived in Mitchell, SD for one night so that we could visit our second Cabella’s on this trip.  We were at R and R campground, a repeat of the past.  Roxie located a store that sold Bison and we stuffed our freezer with over 6 lbs…which we will hoard!  A trip to Mitchell, SD must include a walk in front of the Corn Palace.  Once again…a third repeat.

Jun 28 and 29, 2013 were we at Cenla RV Park in Spirit Lake, IA…also a repeat stop.  The park was very crowded and gave us much people watching. The lake was impossible to get into.  Guess it is understood where the kayak remained.  However, being in the town we had excellent walking.



June 30 through July 7, 2013 were spent at the Seven Amana Colonies in Amana, IA. Again a many times repeated stop, this historic group of seven colonies gives us moments to reflect, enjoy the peaceful and fertile  landscape and the distant bawling of cows.  Please enjoy their web site.   Seven Amana Colonies         We biked to the Middle Amana, 2 miles.  There was time for us to bike around Lily Lake and also bike into main Amana.  Our stops always include the Woolen Mill and the Furniture Store.

German Immigrants founded The Amanas in the late 1850s after escaping religious persecution.  This communal way of life ended just before the Great Depression.  Families could own their homes and work outside of the towns.  Many families have stayed.  Amana Refrigeration was founded and just a few years ago was purchased by Whirlpool.  Please continue past the next long white space!  Who knows!!                                                                                                                                

June 8 – 15 we camped at Sugar Bottom, COE (Corp of Engineer) campground near North Liberty, IA.  We are not far from Iowa City and this is a repeat visit.  The well-used lake did let us in!!  Our first trip was in the evening and the frantic boats endowed us with generous waves.  So…we outfoxed these boats and got up at 6AM and hit the lake for about an hour before 8:30 one morning.  The 300 site park filled to capacity over the weekend and our pleasant walking and biking were greatly impeded by “amateurs” who left to return to pay into Social Security! We will join several Frustrated Maestro friends June 16-22, 2013 at another COE park, Thomson Causeway in Savanna, IL looking out at the mighty Mississippi River. For a few days we will be “just jammin” prior to the Midwest FMCA Rally in Manchester, IA.  Charles will direct the Midwest Rally.

7 Weeks at home!

It is now June 9, 2013 and we are back out on the road since June 4!  We have several destinations this 2.5 months.  The first is to Gillette, WY for the International FMCA convention.  Charles will play with the Frustrated Maestros.  More on this trip in a few weeks.

 

We arrived home on April 9 from FL via Gaffney, SC and east TN.  We go to Gaffney each spring for service at Freightliner.  And…we stop in East TN to visit Marston relatives.
 

It was our pleasure to have Flower and Glen MacMillen stop in our driveway a night on their way from FL to MO for the summer.  This was their second stop with us.
 

 

 

  While in Franklin 7 weeks we did the usual spring things.  The medical community is thriving from our prescheduled visits.  We have learned that our “healthy” life style of eating and exercising continues to give us benefits.

We enjoyed visits from our son, wife and boys and Charles found a little trombone playing time with grandson, Michael.  We have another definitely GRANDdog!

We had a dog chocolate consumption scare.  Roxie had taken some brownies out of the freezer.  PeeDee, our wonderful cat, served them.  This did not take long for a dog to take the package to the bed and consume it.  When Roxie returned Heidi was standing on the bed in the middle of chocolate crumbs…of course, on a late Saturday afternoon.  We were headed out the drive with her to the Emergency Clinc and Charles felt we should take Daisy, also.  It turned out that Daisy had consumed them and produced them at the vet.  This caused her heart to race.  Of course, getting rid of them and meds brought her back to normal.  They were a bit rum-dumb the rest of the evening. Lessons learned…chocolate is highly toxic to dogs!!!

    Keep on going down!!

 

 

In late May the mosquitos arrived with a vengeance causing us to retreat under head mosquito coverings and wearing long sleeves and legs while sweating.  They effectively cut down on yard work.  Our pet family also did their health checkups…checking out the same as us.  Lucky, Beagle, was slightly anemic and is on HiVite iron supplement.  She is pumping iron and just does not act her 16-18 years of age.  What a puppy.  She is completing one year in her muzzle which keeps her from consumming anythng and getting very sick.

Our greyhounds, Heidi and Daisy, took us to 10 prescheduled Pet Therapy Visits in April and May.  We love this “work.”  The girls love the many pats.

Lulu, our lucky resident neighbor’s cat, continues to live in her /Charles’s shop.  She has AC, radio, lights, food, and a kitty window. She loves doing push-ups with Charles each morning.

 

While in Franklin we enjoyed the yard trying to get it ready for summer.  Weeds be gone did not totally retreat because I ran out of time before the mosquitos arrived.  Seven weeks at home raced by as there is the constant “refill” of traveling items like meds, refills, organizing for a neighbor to send mail along the way…and the list goes on. On June 23, after leaving Gillette, WY and the Frustrated Maestro event at FMCA we will go to Sundance, WY and revisit Devil’s Tower. We have seen it once. We’ll go back across SD and a stop at an outfitter store in Mitchell, SD.  July will find us in IA.  The first week we will be at the Seven Amana Colonies followed by two stops at Corp of Engineer parks.  Here we will meet Maestro friends.  The last week of July Charles will be directing at the Midwest area FMCA rally in Manchester, IA.      Following this we will drop south to Red Bay, AL and our MH factory for some “fixes!”   Driveway company comes in mid-August.  We love this company.  They bring their breakfast!

 

Departed Winter Home: Leesburg, FL

We arrived at our winter home, Holiday Travel Resort, Leesburg, FL on November 28, 2012.  Four months flew by and we left on March 28, 2013!
Christmas 2012 followed in a month.

Holiday Travel Resort

In between we “went to work” for the three organizations we help manage and enjoy doing…..Volley Ball, Computer, and the new park band.  Very little grass grows under our feet.  Besides…FL is so dry that many yards are just sand.  Volley Ball diehards were on the courts as early at October 31.  Charles manages this season, monitors and adjust teams daily, arranges for the Fun Day, Challenge Tournament, Tournament and closing social-dinner. Volley Ball Blog

Charles started a small wind-brass group last year.  Two trumpets and his trombone entertained once.  This year a clarinet was added and they group played for a private Mardi Gras party, the Craft Fair, closing for the two night park variety show and for the softball fun day.  Check out the new blog and see how the band is growing.  Strike Up The Band at HTR   

Roxie continued her activities with the Computer TEAM of 4 men whose abilities are unquestionable.  She just keeps things organized, helps monitor the bank of 3 public computers, plans the weekly classes and helps run the Monday morning Help Sessions open to all.  She enjoyed teaching some classes. She maintains the blogs for all of these organizations.   Computer Club       We left the first week of February to drive to Brooksville, FL (Tampa) for Charles to just play with the Frustrated Maestros.  He was not ask to direct this  year but did direct upon request.  He will direct this group in 2014. All Things Frustrated Maestros

Our pet family is just fine. PeeDee, THE CAT since 2005 is still in command.  Both Daisy and Heidi had simultaneous and unrelated foot sores and visited our Leesburg vet.  Both are now fine but wore socks and Therapaw boots for a while.  Lucky Beagle had a good year wearing her constant muzzle outside.  Many times we answered that she was not a bitter but a BIG EATER!  She was not sick once from scarfing up something inedible !  Heidi and Daisy took us on Therapy Visits as arranged by our Leesburg Paws Therapy Dog  Chapter.



Our long afternoon walks always included Katie and her mom Elsa.

New York is a long way to travel to visit them.  We will continue our visits in December 2013 when we arrive in Florida.

 

We are camped at a corp park in Modoc, SC for a few days.  After a regular service visit to Gaffney, SC and Freightliner we will head to east TN to visit Marston cousins and their families late this week.   

 

After this we will land in Franklin..likely before April 10.  It has been a long time since we have stroked Lulu our resident kitty who lives comfortably in Charles’s shop with heat or AC, lights, radio and her own kitty door.  Her “dad” is in and out to feed her and check on our place.