icing the cake

We dropped Nicholas off at Pizza Hut Friday evening enjoing dinner with our kids, our son Matthew was able to join us as well.

The cafe was fairly busy both Saturday and Sunday mornings. I try to be prepared in the kitchen by prepping what ingredients I need but it is hard to judge what people will order. Some days are "pancake" days where it seems like every other order is pancakes while other days it may be "omelete day" or "french toast day". There really is no rhyme or reason to it so we do our best to prepare and then just go with the flow. :-)

Monday we took a well deserved motorcycle ride. Rudee's parents both grew up near here so we explored some of their old stomping grounds. Her Mom lived in the small town of Saint Bernice but we were not sure of the exact house (if it is still standing). There is a group of buildings that at one time comprised the business district with several empty lots, some with the outline of the foundation of the building that used to be there, but all the business' have long ago closed down and the remaining buildings were abandoned. That seems to be the case in most of the small towns accross the U.S. and is a sad state of affairs. I know it's hard for our kids to even imagine what our daily life used to be like when you knew the first name of the local grocer and he knew you, your neighbor owned the local filling station/garage and your pharmacist knew your medical history and what medicines you were taking without using a computer.

Tuesday morning the boss man here at the KOA asked if I could help him pour some concrete. He wanted to make one of the cabins handicapped accesable and had already staked out the frame for a new patio. He also had framed an entry porch for the office door in the new building and thresholds for the two overhead doors.
The concrete truck arrived at 9:30 and we poured the areas at the shop first. Those were small areas and went pretty quick. The cabin patio was much larger and a lot more work. There were two other work campers as well as the boss man helping out and we were able to get the patio poured, leveled and smoothed out. Here I am "icing the cake" with my hand trowel.

One of the work campers had to leave Monday to return home. He was having some medical problems that he needed to take care of and we were sorry to see them go. Good luck Chip and Velma, it was great getting to know you guys and are looking forward to hooking up again somewhere down the road.

We are getting geared up for the July 4th weekend here at the campground and expect a busier than normal week end, I'll keep you posted.

enjoying our "Grandson week"

What first attracted me to full time RVing was the ability and flexibility to travel that this lifestyle allows. I would read blogs and dream of living and working in different areas of this great country. I guess I really didn't imagine our first summer "on the road" would be only 70 miles from our old hometown. Instead I pictured exploring Yellowstone or the Grand Tetons, maybe eating lobster at a pier in Maine or even taking long motorcycle rides along the coast. "Baby steps" is what I keep telling myself, "take it slow" is another of my favorite phrases.
One big advantage to being close to family is being able to spend time with the grand kids and this week has been a lot of fun with Nicholas staying with us. He has really enjoyed going to work with us the last couple of days. He has divided his time between helping me outside and helping Rudee in the office. The arriving campers get a real kick out of him delivering their "welcome to the neighborhood" cookies.

Tuesday evening we took him to the local dirt track to watch the race cars. Rudee packed a cooler and we had a picnic supper waiting for the action to start. Nascar drivers Tony Stewart, Kenny Wallace and Justin Allgaier were racing their modified cars. Justin won the feature race with Tony coming in second. Here is Tony in his #14 rounding the second turn next to where we were sitting.

Today is Nick's last day with us. We are meeting our daughter in Lebanon at Pizza Hut to have dinner and drop him off. We have really enjoyed spending time with him, now it's time for his two sisters to  spend some one on one time with Mamaw and Papaw, on second thought maybe we need to take a week or two to recover :-). I'll keep you posted.

helping hand

Saturday after our shift in the cafe we headed to Broadview Lake Campground to visit with several of our motorcycle buddies who were camping there. We spent a couple of hours catching up, telling stories and just relaxing under the awning. We would have liked to stay longer but had made plans to meet Rudee's family at a restaurant in the tiny town of New Ross, Indiana. We were celebrating fathers day and her Dad had chosen the restaurant. We have eaten here several times in the past and the place is known for huge steaks at reasonable prices.
With all the kids, their kids, and their kids' kids we ended up with a table of 21 people and had a great time.
We had an extra passenger on our trip home. Our grandson, Nicholas, came back to the 5er with us to spend the week. We checked with our boss here at the KOA and got the "OK" to have him hang around us during our shifts. He even made sure Nick got a KOA shirt and name tag so he looked "official". Nick got a real kick out of wearing his own "uniform". His first shift was Sunday morning in the cafe. He was really looking forward to working with his Grandma and Papaw.

Here he is toward the end of our shift. Some of his duties were to help Rudee carry orders and bus the tables after the customers left. He made $11.00 in tips! That sure made his day worthwhile and we are all looking forward to working together the rest of the week.

The weather is smokin' hot here so I am sure we will be spending some time in the pool and we are planning on taking Nick to the race track for the sprint car races. They are having a Nascar night with special guests Tony Stewart, Kenny Wallace and Ken Schrader all scheduled to race. That should be a fun time! I'll keep you posted.