Townhouse

This truly has been a crazy week.

On Tuesday we visited with a realtor about finding a one level townhouse.  He gave us access to the multiple listings and we found 7 in the southern suburbs of Minneapolis.  Friday we went to look at them, three already had been sold!  One was a lot of steps to the door, one was in need of a lot of work, one smelled of cigarette smoke.  This sounds like the story of the 3 Bears.  The last townhouse was exactly what we had in mind.

Saturday we looked again at the last townhouse and put down a bid which was accepted.  So on June 15 we will be the proud owners of a townhouse where we plan to live part of the year and still go south for the winter.

We have no furniture so yesterday we looked at furniture and fount some we liked but will keep looking for awhile.  Today we went IKEA and found many possibilities for stands and storage, etc.

All this has left us tired.

Cold and getting colder

It has turned COLD and the wind is blowing - no sun anywhere...

Sheila and family invited us for a delicious spaghetti dinner this evening.  Good to see everyone!

Their Dog Lexi:

Arrived in Prior Lake

We left Osceola and arrived in Prior Lake, Minnesota today.  It was about 6 hours on the road and a easy drive except for traffic in Des Moines and the usual road construction.  It is good to get to our destination and know we don't have to travel for some time.  Brenda came over for a visit in the evening.

We had what is now the usual hassle with our Dish Satellite.  We got it aimed easily but it took too calls to get the local stations thanks to the first person not understanding English.  Then the directory would not download so another call which was transferred to a special technician.  She couldn't get it to work so decided our very old DVR needs to be replaced and is sending us one for the cost of shipping.  (Told us to junk the old one as it is so antique.)

Branson to Osceola

We left Branson today, a day earlier than we had planned to get ahead of the rain.  We had fog until just south of Kansas City, sometimes fairly thick fog.  The trip went well with the usual folks pulling out in front of us, etc.  We got to Osceola Iowa about 3PM.  We got sandwiches at Arbys for dinner and are set for a relaxing evening before heading on the last leg to Minnesota tomorrow.

I could use the energy about now---

Rain in Branson

It started raining in the night and has rained and been dark and gloomy all day.  We went to our all time favorite buffet, The Grand Country, for a huge lunch.  Then we drove around some of the Branson "strip".  We stayed home the rest of the day and had canned soup for dinner, still not very hungry.

It did stop raining long enough for Don to debug the windshield.

Cleaning, shopping and resting

We were still tired today but did manage to get the motorhome cleaned inside.  Outside will have to wait as it has rained all day.  We went to Walmart for a few groceries and then it was nap time.

We went for dinner at a favorite - Rib Crib and had great ribs for dinner.

To Branson, MS

This wasn't as long of a trip as yesterday but grueling traveling through the Arkansas mountains north of Little Rock.  Then there is the long strip of road with curb on the edge, hard to keep the motorhome from hitting the curb and sending it into the other lane.  At least no rain today.

North of Little Rock a car transport truck decided not to merge from three lanes to two lanes when he should have and ended up on the edge of the road crowding us over.  We had a car next to us and couldn't move so we hit the brakes and he got be just in time.  Then a person pulled out in front of us causing another braking.

It was somewhat of a challenge to get parked, we were tried and heated up some left over pizza for dinner.

Long travel day

A 10 hour day on the road from Gulf Shores, Alabama to Tunica, Mississippi.  Do to a miss-calculation on Don's part we had to stop for diesel three times.  One time took forever.  Then we got into heavy traffic - accident and construction - in Jackson Mississippi.  So the day was really an hour longer than need be.  We couldn't find a place to pull over for lunch until 2:30.  

We had rain for the first 3 hours and then suddenly sunshine as we headed north at Bayport.  We are parked at Sam's Town Casino campground.  They have nice long pull through sites so was not a problem to park, we didn't need any more problems.  With a Subway for dinner we are all set to hit the road again tomorrow.

Moving on

Time to head north (although they are still getting snow in Minnesota).  We got everything ready yesterday and so today we just had the last minute things and got on the road by 7:30 AM.  It was an 8 hour trip all on interstate roads, made 3 rest stop breaks and one break for diesel.  

The worst part was it was a hot day, cool start but got near 90.  No Rain!  Now we have to plan our next leg northward between storms.

Back to Sumter Oaks

They came at 6:30 AM to get our window that needed defogging.  We then had hopes they would get it done ASAP and we would move back to Sumter Oaks.  No it took until about 3 PM for them to bring it back and install.  It looks great and good to have it done.  We got back and sat up at SO by 4:30, got ready and went to Bushnell Beef o'Brade for a hamburger.  It was a long hot day.

Now we have a couple days to recover, clean the RV, catch up on cloths washing AND reclean the window.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!  We ate breakfast out and then went back to the motorhome and got it ready to move.  We left Sumter Oaks about 1 PM and we set up at Suncoast Designers in Hudson, FL by 2 PM.  We are having another window defogged before we head north.

We went to Cracker Barrel for our Easter Dinner.  We got in right away but there was a waiting line when we left.

Pink Moon

Escapees meeting

We went to the Escapee's chapter meeting in Clermont today.  This is the last one until next November.  Seems like a long time away and much "water to go under the bridge".  There were less than half the people as many have gone to their homes in the north.

Nasty jobs done

We both went to the dentist today for our annual teeth cleaning and check-up.  Good News - neither of us had any cavities!!!

So we celebrated by going to the near-by Dunkin Donuts for coffee (ice coffee for me) and donuts.  When we got home we started washing the motorhome windows, had lunch and then finished the job.  Later Don washed the scum off the inside of the car windows.

We got a couple nasty jobs done today.