Long Weekend Just For Kicks

We drove to Indianapolis to spend some time with Sandy’s sister and her family. We stayed with them so the mothership stayed home and we made the trip in the CRV.

We set out early Friday morning (6:30 AM), and took the long way to Indy, stopping near Milwaukee to check on our stored property and then fought the traffic in and around Chicago. When we got to Lebanon Indiana we turned off the interstate and visited White River campground located in a Hamilton County Park near Cicero Indiana which is just north of Indianapolis.

We visited White River to see if it would make a good landing site when the mothership visits the area. When we visited in April we stayed at the KOA near Shirley and Alan but felt it was a little pricy for a basic campground with few amenities. White River has some full hookup sites that are roomy enough for us and the campground is only about 30 minutes from Shirley and Alan. The delays in and around Chicago and our two side trips made for a long drive but luckily we arrived in time for dinner.

Saturday morning we were on our way to Dayton Ohio to watch Shirley and Alan’s grandchildren Kaitlin and Jackson compete in a Taekwondo tournament. Kaitlin and Jackson are both Black Belts and competed in Form and Sparring events. Kaitlin won a Silver medal in Form (competing against a boy), and she took home the Gold Medal for Sparring; Jackson took home Gold Medals in both events. It was our first event and we found it to be fun and interesting.

Jackson (in blue), sparring.

Kaitlin (in blue), sparring

We then drove to the National Museum Of The United States Air Force located at Wright Patterson Field in Dayton. By the time we arrived we had less than two hours to spend there which didn’t even scratch the surface of this collection of information and equipment of the Air Force; depending on your level of interest you could spend several days to a week without getting bored. I hate to be a name dropper but during our short visit we saw the following; a P-51, a Thunderbolt, a B-25, a B-17, the B-29“Bockscar” which dropped the atomic weapon that ended World War II, a B-1-B, an SR-71 Blackbird, a B-52, a Stealth Fighter and the new Raptor. The highlight for Alan was spotting the aircraft he took his Navy flight training in (I believe it was a T-36). We would definitely return here.

Raptor.

Alan completed his flight training in a trainer like this.

Sunday morning Alan and John rode to Fort Harrison and after a tour of the park’s trails returned after a tiring two plus hour 21 mile bicycle ride; Shirley and Sandy took a couple of nice walks and we all spent the remainder of the day relaxing and watching football and NASCAR. We were joined by Shirley and Alan’s daughter Anne, her husband Chris and their children Kaitlin and Jackson for supper.

Monday morning Sandy and John were back on the road to Chilton and although the return trip did not include the traffic backups we look forward to the days when we will not have to drive through (or near) Chicago. Tuesday we were back to work and although it was a short week it was intense and John was happy to hear Sandy remind him on Friday that he had 10 (count them), 10 weeks of work remaining!

Thank You Shirley and Alan for your hospitality and a fun weekend.

Checkups and Chuck Outs

We are continuing to make progress toward our goal of full timing during January 2010, this past week we had service done on ourselves and the motor home, plus we continue to sort and dispose of items around the house.

With the first cold weather of the fall moving in we decided to winterize the motor home, this went well and we used less plumbing antifreeze for the Splendide than we did last year; the brand of antifreeze we used last year was so lightly colored that it appeared to be clear water unless you really looked closely. The brand we used this year was a darker pink/red and it was very evident when it was in the wash drum.

The mothership then went to a trusted friend who lubed the chassis and checked the brakes and motor including the coolant and oil. The verdict was to wait on the oil and filter changes as we only had our Charleston trip last spring and less than a hundred miles this summer. We topped off the fuel and added some anti-gel and will pull out the batteries before the end of the month.

We continue to sort through our property and reduce our inventory. This week the cold air moved in and the furnace started to run regularly so we decided to part with our old dehumidifier, every Monday night before the trash can goes out to the curb we make sure that it is full.

We are also sorting through our offices at work in an effort to reduce our clutter. We have both been in supervisory positions for some time so we have been sorting through folders from completed projects and projects that never were; it’s amazing how much paper a few file cabinets hide. We are also removing our photos and mementoes and deciding what to keep, what to scan and what to part with. John also celebrated his last birthday at work before we become unemployed.

 

 

John and Sandy visited the optometrist to have their eyes checked and John replaced his glasses with a new pair, ouch, now I know why we put that off for two years. The next round of maintenance will take us to the dentist, John also has appointments with two other doctors before we leave.