no water

We are slowly recovering from the week end. Work has been, well ..... work. You know how it is. We spent both Monday and Tuesday evening here in the 5th wheel just relaxing and watching TV.

Wednesday afternoon our son Matthew stopped in to change his clothes on his way to the interview I mentioned. He called a couple of hours later and said he thought it went really good and was on his way back so we could go out to eat. I guess as soon as he hung up from me his phone rang and they offered him a job!! He doesn't have a start date yet but will be either Feb 10th or the 15th. He is going to be a Corrections Officer for the Clinton County Sheriff's Department.

He made it back to the 5er right as I was clocking out and we headed to Lafayette to look at an apartment for him and Mandie. The palce was a duplex that was just so-so. He thought he could do better going into an apartment complex and wanted to look some more. We met the Goldwing group at Little Mexico in Lafayette for dinner. We had a big crowd of almost 30 people and had a good meal.

This morning I got up and there was no water :-( The temps were in the high teens but we had been through temps lower than these so I wasn't sure what was going on. I went outside and checked the campgrounds hydrant and it flowed there. I grabbed the heated hose and it was frozen, rats. I disconnected it and brought it inside to thaw out. I had just read on the Montana Owners Forum of another winter RVer who had the same hose and his quit working earlier this week. Luckily I had prepared a back up hose by taking one of my white hoses and wrapping it with an electrical tape and covering it with insulation. I had it stored in the Freightliner. I got it out and hooked it up and we were back in business.

I called the Pirit Heated Hose company and at first he told me to try hooking a small section of hose from the convenience center down through the access hole in the basement and then hook the heated hose to it under the 5th wheel. He said since the thermostat for the hose is on the male end there may be too much heat in the convenience center to cause it to turn on. I told him the hose has worked great for the past 2 months in below freezing temps and thought it was odd it would quit all of a sudden. He agreed and told me he was shipping a new hose out right away. Cool.

Matthew called and he did find an apartment in Lafayette and they are needing someone in the office part time as a leasing agent and were interested in Mandie. They are going to fax in her resume and it looks like she might end up with a job too!! He is supposed to get a call tomorrow giving him his official start date and then we can make plans to help them move. We are borrowing a cargo trailer and are hoping everything will fit in it so we can do it all in one trip.

No big plans this week end but I'm sure we'll get in some kind of mischief. I'll keep you posted.

Week end fun

Wow! What a week end. I had a slower day than usual at work on Thursday which made the day pass very s.....l......o.......w. The good news is I was able to bake 2 dozen cookies to take with us to the rally.

Friday morning we packed the suitcase and our snacks into the Dakota and headed out. We were meeting Niles and Deb in Lebanon for breakfast. Tim Ranney was going to meet us as well and then we would all head to the Marriott in Indianapolis for the 2010 Winter Rendezvous.

We arrived at the motel shortly after 11:00 and got checked in quickly. Well not all of us did, Niles and Deb's room wasn't ready yet and they said it would be a couple of hours, bummer.

There were several of our chapter members already there and we quickly got ourselves acclimated to where everyones rooms were located. The chapter pays for a suite that we use as a hospitality room. This gives us all a place to gather and everyone brings snacks to share. We had a total of 31 members attending the rally.

Rudee and I picked up our registration packet and arm bands which gets you into all the activities. The vendors were finishing getting set up and we did a quick walk through but didn't see anything we just had to have.

Several of us went to the motel restaurant for an early dinner. Niles and Deb are our 2009 Chapter Couple of the Year and are competing to be the 2010 Indiana Couple of the Year. They had to be interviewed by the judges at 6:30 and then would suffer through the "open" interviews in front of all of us. We made sure we had good seats so we could yell and scream for "our" couple. I guess it worked because they won!! Great job guys. They now compete to be the Region Couple of the Year against couples from Michigan and Ohio. When they win that they will go to the National Rally, "Wing Ding", in 2011 and compete for the title of International Couple of the Year.

After all the Couple of the Year excitement they had the talent show. They divided up the acts so the serious acts, ie: the ones that actually have talent, competed against one another. They also awarded places for the comedy acts. There were 10 acts in each category and we were entertained for a couple of hours and had a great time.

Saturday morning we were up early for opening ceremonies which "officially" kicks off the rally. We have been in the organization a long time and know a lot of the members across the state. I always enjoy catching up with everyone and we spent a lot of the morning just visiting with people. Rudee did do a trivia quiz. There were 45 questions and the answers were posted all over the motel. I tried to impress her with my knowledge when she could not find the answer to one of the questions. I guess she didn't believe me when I told her that it was Hugh Heffner who had discovered the Virgin Islands. Education is a wonderful thing :-).

The rally has several games, seminars and activities that keep you busy most of the day. Things wind down about 3pm to give everyone a chance to get ready for the banquet which starts at 5:30. I spent my time taking a quick nap :-).

The dinner was held in the main ballroom. We had 3 large tables reserved for our chapter. They got our large group served very fast. I know it takes a lot of work to get 300 meals out at the same time and the food still be hot and they did a very good job.

After dinner they cleared some of the table away to make room for the Grand Parade. There were 5 floats entered in the competition. The guys had the floats all ready to go and they paraded past the judges and through the crowd. The floats showed a lot of creativity and the competition was fierce. The judges totaled up the scores and .......... We Won!! They also pass out voting slips to the crowd and they select a float for "peoples choice" and we won that too!!

We hung around after the parade for the "sock hop". Rudee did some dancing and I was content to be a wall flower :-). We finally made it back to our room a little after midnight. Good thing I had that nap earlier :-).

Sunday morning our group all walked over to the restaurant next door and had breakfast. The closing ceremonies were completed and we loaded up the truck and headed for the RV show at the State Fairgrounds. The show this year seemed larger than in years past which surprised me given the troubles the RV industry has gone through. I did notice that there seemed to be more entry level "week end" type trailers and less of the higher end units. There also seemed to be fewer motorhomes and only a few of the high $$ ones. We went through almost all of the 5th wheels that were on display and we didn't see anything that was better than our 2007 Montana. We are both very satisfied with our choice and even though we wouldn't even consider a trade at this point, we still like to look :-).

We made plans to meet some of our friends in Lebanon at a local restaurant that has several big screen TV's. The Colts game started at 3pm and we were just finishing a late lunch when they kicked off. We watched the first 1/2 at the restaurant and then made a quick dash home to see the rest of the game. What an exciting game. Peyton Manning is such a joy to watch. He is not only a great athlete but a natural leader as well. Can't wait until the super bowl, it should be a great game.

No big plans this week. Matthew is coming to spend the night again on Wednesday. He had some testing for a job a couple of weeks ago and they want to talk to him some more. Keep your fingers crossed, it's looking pretty good for him and we are hoping he will get an offer. I'll keep you posted.

early week end

Rudee and I are taking Friday off so we can attend the motorcycle rally so we will get a 3 day week end. Whoooooo Hoooooo!!

Wednesday evening we attended the meeting of our local Goldwing Chapter. I am in charge of presenting the "sour grapes" award. This honor goes to someone in the chapter who has done something kind of stupid since the last meeting. Sometimes I only have one or two "candidates" and then there are some months, like this one, where the competition is stiff. Our chapter colors are purple and gold so the award fits our theme. This month we had a member trying to build a float with an electric staple gun that wasn't plugged in (took him a while and some assistance to figure out why it wouldn't work LOL). Another towed their motorcycle all the way down to Florida only to realize they had left their helmets in Indiana and had to have them shipped down by Fed Ex. A popular add on to our motorcycles is an LED license bracket that scrolls a message similar to the Times Square sign in New York. One of our members installed one on his bike and programed it to scroll his name, only problem was he spelled his own name wrong .... DUH. Of course yours truly has never done anything remotely stupid to justify having to wear "the grapes" for a month. :-) I'm the one that chooses who wears them and you can't call a foul on the referee so I think I'm safe from the "honor".

We also have an award called the "fine wine" that is given to someone that does something above and beyond. Well they gave it me. I was driving to Fort Wayne last month and came up on an accident that had just occurred. A pick up truck had crossed through the median and hit the guardrail on my side and then overturned. I didn't see it happen because a semi was blocking my view. The semi driver and I helped the guy out of the pick up once we determined he was OK. I had forgotten about it and was flattered that my friends thought I deserved recognition for it. Here is a photo of the "fine wine" which is actually sparkling grape juice. :-).

We are meeting Robinsons tomorrow morning at Flapjacks for breakfast and then heading to the rally. I'm not sure I will get to post anything from the rally but I'll be sure and take a lot of pictures to share. We are planning on going to the RV show on Sunday after the rally ends. Looks like we will have a busy week end. I'll keep you posted.