WONDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

September 15, 2018

Hi everyone!  Here is what has been happening since our last blog:

On August 4th we celebrated my mother's 95th birthday.  Family and dear friends were in attendance - my brother and sister-in-law hosted at their home in Zion, IL.  A great time was had by all
I feel so blessed to have had this wonderful woman in my life for so long!

My mom, my sister-in-law & brother

My mom and Jerry's and my godson Garrett - my mom just loves him so much - he is such an wonderful young man.

Does she look awesome for 95 or what?

mom and her three children

mom and three of her four grandchildren

two greats

more greats

youngest great really enjoying the cake

Thought this was cute

Our godson Clayton spent the day with us - his family eats plant based so he was very happy when Jerry cooked steaks

Celebrating with Audrey and Carol M. for Carol's birthday with grasshoppers!!

We spent one day at the Wisconsin State Fair with our oldest grandson Calvin and his dad Chris.
Had a great time but it was very hot.

The fair is known for it's cream puffs - the line was really long

They have been sold at the fair since 1924

over 350,000 are sold each year

We were parked under wonderful shade trees all summer but they didn't do any favors to the roof of the motorhome.
It looked much better after Jerry got her all cleaned up

Grandpa Jerry sharing his love of airplanes with the grandkids at a local air show

On September 10th as planned we left Illinois.  In the last blog I told you we would be attending the Albuquerque balloon festival.  We will still be traveling through Albuquerque but due to the unexpected passing of Jerry's step brother-in-law we will continue on out to California to attend Dick's memorial service.  Will do the balloon festival sometime in the future.

Wonder where we are off to now

We spent two nights in Peoria, IL where we have family and friends

My sister-in-law had us over for a delicious dinner - she lives on a beautiful little lake

My niece Taylor was on her way to work but we got to spend some time visiting 

Anita and Taylor

And to top an already wonderful evening off we saw a beautiful sunset

We spent two wonderful nights at the Kickapoo Winery so naturally did some wine tasting

Our godson Isaac who is a senior at Bradley University came over for a visit.
My brother, his girlfriend Kathy and her daughter Hailey came for lunch and our friends from NOMADS Reid and Judith visited in the evening but both times forgot to take pictures.

On our way to Peoria we had some trouble with our car so while there Jerry took the car in and we thought the problem had been found and solved. 

Driving through St. Louis

Our next destination was The One and Only Vacuum Cleaner Museum in  St. James, MO - also our home for the night.

On the way to the museum the car acted up again.  

Vacuum's from the 1910's.    It truly was extremely interesting and every vacuum works

Some worked off of billows.

They had a few other appliances also

As shag got deeper they had to keep improving the vacuums

From Air Force One 

On the door when leaving the museum

I mentioned that the car acted up again so we had to get to a fair size city to have it looked at.  The problem only occurred when we were towing.  It is a long story that I won't bore you with but it was very scary.  The closest good size city was Springfield, MO so we headed out.  Jerry driving the motorhome and me following in the Jeep.  Before heading out we called the Jeep dealer in Springfield but he couldn't see us until Tuesday and it was Wednesday - so we would have had to sit for almost a week!!  We found another dealer 45 minutes from Springfield that could take us that afternoon.  We decided to stay in Springfield though as there is a very nice ELKS Lodge we could park the motorhome at at a very reasonable price and we had no idea how long we would be staying waiting on the car.  It was a very tense day - we had to get to Springfield, get the motorhome set up, find a storage facility to put the items in we were moving from IL to AZ (the items couldn't be in the back of the Jeep while they worked on it), and we had to rent a car and drive 45 minutes to Aurora, MO by 3:00pm.  But as usual God put the right people in the right place to make it all work.  When we checked into the ELKS we told them the situation and they told us there was a storage facility literally 2 blocks from there.  We called and rented a storage unit for a very reasonable price.  We also started calling about renting a car and no one had one!!  After calling three companies finally found Avis had one but it was a luxury car and over $70 a day and we had no idea how long we needed it for.  So we rushed over to unload the Jeep and to pick up the rental car.  When we arrived someone had turned in a mid size car that was much more reasonable.  So we headed to Aurora to the Jeep dealer.  They found the problem and had to order a part.  Fortunately it was in stock, in Branson, and they could have by noon on Friday.  They thought it would be done on Friday but weren't certain and if they hadn't finished it would be Monday.  So we went back to the motorhome Thursday and waited.  They called Friday afternoon and said it was done but then we had to rush down to pick up the Jeep before they closed in Friday afternoon traffic.  This morning, Saturday, we went and reloaded the storage items into the Jeep and returned the rental car.  During all of this we had to call and cancel a few reservations we had at campgrounds but fortunately when we called them back today even though they were different dates they still had room for us.

We were suppose to attend a War Bird Fly In in Oklahoma today that obviously didn't happen but all in all we had time and all is good.

For the most part we love this life style but when something goes wrong with the motorhome or the Jeep it really can through a wrench in plans.  Especially when it is the motorhome because it is also where you eat and sleep.  We really feel blessed in how everything worked out but there were a few stressful days.

The ELKS Lodge we hung at

Across the street is a Kraft Macaroni factory

Stopped at a farmer's market today and for the first time bought Thai eggplant.
Had no idea how to fix it but it was cute so bought some.

Ended up sauteing it with sweet yellow peppers and tomatoes  - turned out pretty good.

Tomorrow morning we head out for Oklahoma City - praying that the car truly is fixed.  

So until next time, take care, hug those you love, do something unexpected for someone and enjoy every day.  Hugs and Blessings, Carol and Jerry