Grenada Lake, North Abutment

  Well, we are all nestled in at Grenada Lake, MS.  Not sure how long we will be here, but we are in a non-reservable spot and we can “pay as we stay”.. As you can see from the header photo, our site is HUGE, and there are only about 6 other campers here.  Weather is 55 degrees and sunny today.  I  had planned the first couple dinners of “meals on RV wheels” to be pretty easy, and not in need of grilling, thus McGuyver has gotten off pretty easy.  Monday night, we had my homemade beef stew, which I made a couple weeks ago and froze for just this occasion.  Last night I whipped up some spaghetti sauce (Lord knows I have plenty of red wine) , a salad and some dinner rolls I brought from our family festival.

Tonight, I am letting Chef Dennis get on his grilling apron.  I have some Rib Eye steaks marinating in my special “stuff”…Hey, I just realized that I use red wine in that stuff, too!!  Basically my marinade consists of said Red Wine, EVOO, Balsamic Vinegar, Lite Soy Sauce, Dijon Mustard, Worcestershire Sauce, chopped garlic and fresh ground pepper. For 2 steaks I use 1T. of each…but never measure..If I have 4 steaks, I double it to 2…See???… I gradiated from HS!!!…and flunked Math….thus the reason I RARELY measure …Sometimes, I need to convert the metric over to our system for a recipe..but I just use my own “mysterious” system and fly by the seat of  my pants…IMAGINE THAT.

  I highly recommend this campground, especially if you are 62 years young, or over..That will get you 1/2 price camping at any Army Corps Campgrounds, which is one of the major reasons we like them…Not that we are cheap…Wait a minute..We ARE cheap!..I figure we have to defray our high fuel and liquor costs somehow, right??

Left, you are looking at part of a dry lakebed.  If you squint and look waaaaay off to the right in that photo, you will see some of the lake…The photo on the right was taken on our walk this AM…We walked 2 miles around the 3 loops of this campground.  That photo was taken on the bay.  You are looking down a vacant campsite right on the water…See the Canadian Geese on the water??  Can’t beat this place for $9 buckos a night..

  I took above photo yesterday about 3PM…The sun had yet to make an appearance, but it finally did today.  Just about the time McGuyver was going to light a campfire last night, it started raining….Tonight looks much more promising!!

As for all you kids in the who piled out of the back seat of our GMC, just remember that the quiet hours are from 10PM until 6AM….I doubt ANY of you will be up before that…well…maybe Al….Please don’t scare our new passenger, PAM, just behave, keep the noise down, and NO Green Bay Packer flags allowed!!

“Keep close to Nature's heart...and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”

John Muir

Temporary “Delay of Game” Plan….

  TRA DA!!!!…We are finally foot loose and fancy free…on the road again after almost a full year…Sunday afternoon, we finished packing the Hiker and pulled her up on the drive, FACING OUT!

….Everything was stowed and tucked away….

 

 

 

…..HEY…WE HAD TO MAKE SURE WE HAD ALL OF THE ESSENTIALS!!!

 

 

 

 

After getting underway at 6:30AM on Monday, we headed down Interstate 39, picking up Rt 51, then I-57 all the way to Rend Lake in Southern IL…Just like  Al and Kelly, we had some pretty stiff headwinds on I-57, and were pretty glad to pull into Rend Lake about 12:30PM…One thing we have decided in our “old age”…We are in no rush, and the beauty of traveling with your house in tow is that you can start and stop any time you choose. Those long 10 hour days of travel are a thing of the past for us…

  We are in Gun Creek campground, right on the lake, for $8.00 a night. (That price reflects our 1/2 price, 62 years and older, Golden Age Pass. Us ol’ duffers gotta catch a break somehow!)  Our site backs right up to the woods and we have electric, but no water  hook up…thus we are using water on board…We intended on leaving early this morning for Grenada Lake, MS, but after watching the weather forecast for Memphis and Northern MS, we decided to lay low until tomorrow AM.  They were calling for strong, severe storms and possible tornados…no way, thank you very much. 

McGuyver got our TV hooked up …finally.  Seems it’s been so long since we traveled, he forgot some of the “fine tuning”…But, after a few choice words of encouragement from Moi NOT!, he got Direct TV all hooked up.  It was a good thing …We took one look another good look at the forecast,  and made the decision to stay here 2 nights, instead of just the one…

This morning, after a fuel run in the GMC (a whopping $4.07 for diesel at a local WalMart!), Den decided to see if he could remember how to hook up the Hughesnet and our computer stuff.  Again, there was some slight memory slippage, but it didn’t take long for him to get us online..We hadn’t intended to set it up here, but he now, at least he knows everything works.(even though he has to dismantle the whole darn thing before dark tonight..)

 

 

 

OUR LITTLE SPOT IN THE PARK…I CAN NOW FEEL ALL THE TENSION LEAVING MY NECK AND SHOULDERS…JUST SOMETHING ABOUT THE HIKER AND TRAVEL..

 

 

 

 

 

It rained about 4 inches last night..all night…with thunder and lightening and wind.  This morning we were rewarded by seeing 5 Wild Turkeys (no, not the Bourbon), on our walk…LOVED IT!! I tried to explain to them that they really should disguise themselves as pigeons at this time of year, but they just gobbled off into the woods…

I need to welcome a newcomer to the truck…so everyone SHIFT!!…There, that’s better…  “Traveler” should be pretty comfortable  now…She may have to sit alongside Kenny's cooler…and don’t try to sneak a beer, he keeps count!!  Also, a shout out to Bev, in Canada NS..Thanks for the nice complement…Be aware I am very often NOT politically correct..just sayin’..

Sooo….We are on our way to Grenada Lake, MS tomorrow…. I will eventually post from there..now that McGuyver is “back on track”…Ya just gotta love him…I sure do!!

OOOOOH YEAH, THIS IS WHAT I’M TALKIN ABOUT!!

Whew!!!

Short but sweet blog today…Dennis is standing over me, breathing down my neck.. waiting to unhook the computer…sheesh!  Saturday we had a Cave-apalooza!  At one point in time we had 20 adults and 8 kids here(actually I think I missed a few, it felt like lots more!)…Needless to say, our house was upside down and stirred with a stick…

The kids had a great time…..

Taylor sang the whole crazy group a beautiful song….without benefit of music accompanying her. …

…and of course we had a campfire out in the driveway, and a few adult beverages…..

The party broke up about 10PM, and we fell into bed.   The Wolff family left at 8AM for Zionsville, and Den and I  have been loading the Hiker which at this time, 2:30PM, is sitting anxiously on our drive, full of water and raring to go tomorrow morning. This Thursday we had a little snow…

…but today it was 60 degrees…We will be in Rend Lake, Southern Illinois tomorrow night and Grenada Lake, MS Tuesday for about 5 days,(God willing and the creek don’t rise)..That is the next time I will blog because we need to be longer than one night to make it worth the work of McGuyver “sweating up” our Hughesnet Satellite….Thanks for checking on us…I see the The Bayfield Bunch is on the road and happy campers!! Sooooo….until Tuesday or Wed….WE’RE OUTA HERE!!!!  Catch ya on the UP side, kiddos…All of you riding with us in the back seat…keep your hands to yourselves..and be careful of Kenny's cooler…He is getting a little testy about that…

In Countdown Mode…

I would like to welcome a new face to the Cave Dwellings….Jump in the truck, Bud Russman , AKA Arizona RV guy….Make sure you bring a warm jacket ‘cause we don’t always end up in a warm climate when we leave here!!

McGuyver and I are officially in a “countdown mode”…We have been  hauling stuff out to the Hiker for the past few days.  Yesterday we attempted to take a few things out , but it was pouring rain most all day and we ended up with 3” of the wet stuff before dark..Then, this morning we woke up to more rain!! I should have known better than to try to wash the black streaks off the Hiker on Monday!! Now the darn things are right back where they were, looking similar to myself when I do the ugly cry and my mascara runs.

Den has just put the bike rack on the back and mounted our bikes in place.  When walking becomes a pain in my buttkus, I will ride like the wind!!

I also put a Xmas wreath on the outside  ladder at the back of the camper that I can plug in when we “land”…Dennis sanitized the water tank today, and now the ice maker and part of the Hughesnet Satellite dish are in our truck backseat…..

…Oh, RATS!!!…OK…, all you kids are  gonna have to sit carefully on top that thing when we travel…McGuyver thinks it will have a smoother ride in the truck than in the Hiker basement…Obviously, he had no concern for your comfort, eh?   We  hope to get on the road Monday morning at first light , after having a family get together Saturday…Yep, I will try my darndest  to post pics of that insanity on Sunday ,in between last minute loading stuff up and pulling the Hiker up on our driveway for a fast getaway!!

Yesterday,  I made a trip to our small local grocery store called Art’s Super Mart.  They have pretty good prices on wine, and I want to make sure I have plenty on hand.  A funny thing (well, actually a dumb thing) happened while I was shopping.  Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a tall, extremely handsome man about my vintage ( but looking MUCH more “well preserved” than I).  After another quick glance, I realized that I had graduated high school with him.  Now, as you can imagine, I was my usual self….. “sans makeup”, and in baggy jeans, my trusty “old lady” lighthouse  cardigan,with hair extremely unkempt, wearing my orthopedic crocks and toting a faux leopard skin purse…I did NOT  want to exchange “long time no see” hugs in this shape!!!…I need to tell ya that this kid (name of Dan) went to NY City after graduation and landed some roles on TV, plus he was the announcer for the soap “As The World Turns” forever….My credentials for theater consist of one high school play as the sixth child of a dumpy family….I repeat..I did NOT want to run into Dan Region ,(his stage name)…I stealthily maneuvered my grocery cart down a few aisles and did my fastest run to the check out ever…( with my face buried in my hooded sweatshirt)…WHEW!!

I do have to admit..when I got into the GMC in the parking lot, I sat for a few minutes waiting to get another look at “Dan” as he exited the store.  My bad luck, he was a slow shopper, and never showed…. plus I was concerned about an errant cop on patrol, thinking I was “Chester the Molester”.  The last thing I needed was a flashing police squad next to me… so I got it in gear and took off….sigh.

Sooo…McGuyver and I are on a countdown to get us eventually to some warm weather place with some relaxation…A place we can wear shorts and sweat…with sunshine and blue sky!!!

“If you spend your whole life waiting for the storm, you'll never enjoy the sunshine.”

Morris West

Weekend at the Wolff Den…with Murphy ….

  This last weekend Den, myself , our niece, Leanne, and her hubby, Tommy, drove to Zionsville to support Chris and John in their Indy Marathon run on Saturday….Poor John has been off work sick most of the week and was not feeling very well even STILL we got there…He made the decision to go ahead and run with Chris, and if he felt really BAD, he would stop.  As is turned out, he did feel pretty bad….but he finished the race!!  John is quite a runner, and usually John can run 13 miles in under 2 hours,….when he is 100% well.  He finished his first Marathon in 4 hours 8 minutes, which we thought was darn good for running with a horrible cough and not eating much the week before. Chris finished her first marathon at 3 hrs 55 minutes….Her all time best run!!!….and… she ran with a badly draining ear that she couldn’t hear out of.

  Both kids did great…but I gotta tell ya, Murphy’s influence was all over the place.   As I said earlier, Chris ended up running with a draining deaf ear that happened the night before the race. As soon as the race was over, she went to a clinic at the local Walgreens and had it looked at.    After peering into her ear, they told her she had a ruptured eardrum, assured her the hearing would come back, and gave her some heavy antibiotics.  We felt like we were wandering through “sick bay”.

LEFT, CHRIS AND JOHN…6AM, BEFORE THE RACE.

 

 

 

Chris and John trying to stay warm before the race…at 31 degrees!               …….and……they’re off!!!!

While Den, Tom and Leanne were catching up with Chris and John at the halfway point and finish, I was home with Madds, and wondering why their house didn’t seem to be warming up.  After checking the thermostat and noticing it was going DOWN from 65 degrees…gradually ending up at 62, I guessed the furnace either wasn’t turned up….or broken.  Far be it for me to fool with a thermostat on someone else’s house…My luck I would burn it down… Murphy strikes again…..McGuyver took a look at the furnace when he got back and said it wasn’t even firing up…not good.  John called the furnace guy, who came out, and took one look…”Oh, Yea…it needs a special part which we don’t carry…We can get one here on Monday”…Hey! We got a houseful of cold peeps and 2 little kids!!….That didn’t work, either.

H

Chris, giving thumbs up with a mittened hand………..John, running sick, but sticking with it!!

Leave it to John’s Mom, Jan, who managed to scrounge up 3 space heaters.  Add that to John and Chris’s one and we had 4 little heaters all  busily running up the Wolff Den’s electric bill most all of the evening.  Actually, we managed to stay pretty cozy.  It did help that McGuyver started a campfire and we kept the cocktails flowing….

A PERSONAL VICTORY FOR BOTH!! YEA!!!!!

 

After we got the heaters, campfire and cocktails going, we ordered a couple pizzas for dinner….

Ok… “Greek’s” and “Pizzeria” really don’t go together…but the Chicken Ranch and the Pepperoni and banana pepper pizzas RULED!!

We drove back to Sandwich Sunday….after a great trip to cheer our Marathon runners on…I might mention that the same Saturday Chris and John ran the marathon, Terrie, our other daughter, was running the Hot Chocolate 5K in Chicago with some girlfriends…Now that sounds like my kind of race….!

Sooooo..Today McGuyver and I got serious about beginning to load up the Hiker for our launch next Monday, Nov. 14th…We have a family get together this Saturday, so I am also busy planning a menu, trying to clean and getting the RV ready in between… I have been very lax about blogging lately..For some reason there are just not enough hours in the day…At least Den is now home and can get all the important things pumped up, watered, hooked on, filled, tested, cleaned off and loaded…I cannot wait to get that thing out the drive and down the road. I promise to be more prompt with my blogging…

 

“Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow.” ~Douglas Pagels