Two Years Ago Today!

It was two years ago today that left our stick home behind and hit the road.  We were so excited to start our HUGE Adventure.  Here is our first post from the road - Our HUGE Adventure Has Begun!  When we started out, we planned on being on the road for six months and coming home for the winter.  It turned out we were on the road for five months and we had to go home because Dad was sent to Jamaica.  We were so disappointed, but then we found out that after Jamaica, Dad was being sent to Houston for three months. Since he was being sent someplace we could stay the winter, we decided to put our plan in high gear for selling the house and becoming full-time RVers.  Mama had about a month to get rid of almost everything we owned and get our house ready to sell.  It was crazy, but we got it all done.  We were back on the road by the end of November and received a contract on our house just a few weeks later.  In February, we traded in our motor home for one that was better equipped for the full-timer lifestyle.  That in a nutshell is how we became full-timers.

Here I am waiting for our Huge Adventure to begin. That's are old house in the background.

Scout is happy to be on the road.

Our first night on the road. We were in Alabama.

Our current home.

In the past two years, we have been in 22 states.  (Mama needs to update our map.)  Lately, we have been visiting the same places.  We hope that changes because we want to see new places.

Memorial Weekend 2013 - Us In Dallas

June 2012 - The Woodlands, TX

We are going to celebrate our two years on the road by going on a three week vacation!  Yep, starting this Saturday, Dad is going to be off work for 23 days!  We will be staying in four different campgrounds Our first stop will be to the Herbert Hoover's Presidential Library. The folks want to visit all the Presidential Libraries.  Our vacation will then focus on RVing.  The folks will tour RV assembly plants and surplus stores.  Theys are then headed to RV Boot Camp where they will learn "everything" about RVs.  It is 2.5 days of classes.  Mama says the days will be long.  I guess that is why they call it a boot camp.  After the boot camp, the RV rally begins.  Mama is excited about that because there are all sorts of classes that she can take.  There are eight pages of classes.  Some of the classes are RV related but others are craft, computer, etc.  There will be vendors selling their goods.  It is will be crazy with people, according to Mama.  After all the RV stuff, we will head home to visit family and doctors.  Scout and I have to see our vet to get our shots.  BLAH!  I am not looking forward to that, but it is necessary.   After all our visiting, we will head back to this area for another month.  If all goes well when we come back here, we are going to camp in a county park.  It will be a different way of camping for us because we will not have full hook-ups.  We will go into more details about that later, but Mama thinks she is ready to attempt it.  It should make for some funny blog posts.

We have enjoyed our first two years on the road.  We have learned a lot, but there is always more to learn.  We have made some friends along the way and hope to make more!  Cheers!

Celebrating 2 Years On The Road

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is A Retired Racer And A Full-Time RVer

Truman Family Farm

Saturday, the folks decided to visit the Truman Family Farm. This is where Harry S. Truman grew up. Unfortunately, the house is no longer open for tours.  The folks were the only ones there.  Mama knew it was a self-guided tour, but she thought a ranger might be there or maybe some other tourists.

Truman's Boyhood Home

A groundhog now calls the farm his home.

Chicken coop is one of the out buildings

Back view of the house.

The farm started out as 600 acres.  All but ten acres of the farm have been sold.  The National Park Service now owns the property.

Sunday, the folks planned to stay home with us since bad storms were predicted.  Mama thought they might go out to lunch, but the storms came sooner than she expected.  She was busy frying hamburgers when the first round of storms hit.  It was wild.  Hail was hitting our roof and the wind was howling.  Our smoke detectors went off.  Why did they go off?  Dad said it was because Mama was cooking.  BOL!  She doesn't think that joke is funny.  She had the vents open in the RV, but when the rain started, she shut them and she forgot to turn the exhaust fan on.  After the storm ended, Mama went outside to check for damage. She saw what she thought was a floor mat in the street.  It was one of our tire protectors!  The wind blew it right off of our RV.  Mama is glad she saw it before it blew away.  It was custom made for our RV, so it would have been a pain to get it replaced.

The campground had a little bit of tree damage.

What were we doing during the storm?  Well, Scout saw that Mama was distracted, so she took a big bite out of the raw hamburger that was on the counter.  BOL!  Other than that, we did this:

We had a second round in the evening that were supposed to be worse than the first, so Mama was nervous.  It got bad in some areas around us, but we just had heavy rain.  We were lucky.  We know that others did not fair as well yesterday.  :-(

Dad and Scout taking a walk after the storm.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Was Shocked To See His Sister Steal Hamburger From The Counter

Greyhounds And Amelia?

Saturday afternoon, the folks drove to Atchison, KS to visit Amelia Earhart's Birthplace Museum.  As soon as they pulled up, Mama got excited at what she saw.
 

Amelia Earhart's Birthplace Museum

Do you see what Mama got excited about?

I bet this helps.

Yep, there are two greyhound statues outside the home.

When they entered the house, Mama asked if there was connection between Amelia and greyhounds.  Apparently, there is not.  :-(   It appears that someone just donated them to the house.

The folks paid their $5 for the tour.  The price has gone up from the price on the website that Mama posted above. The tour guide gave them a sheet of paper describing the house and sent them on their way for the self-guided tour.  Dad said for $5, she could have given them a tour.  BOL!

The house actually belonged to Amelia's grandparents.  It is the house where she was born and lived until she was about nine.  Her father lived in Kansas City, but traveled a lot, so she lived there with her mother and sister.

The dining room is filled with items from movies telling the story of Amelia.

The clothing was worn by Hilary Swank.

Amelia's bedroom

Mama said there was way too much to see in the museum.  There was a lot to read.  It was interesting.  She would have liked it more if Amelia was a fan of greyhounds.  BOL!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks A Greyhound Would Have Made A Good Co-Pilot For Amelia

A Visit To Fort Leavenworth

Saturday, the folks decided to visit Fort Leavenworth.  It is the oldest continuously active fort west of the Appalachian Mountains.  Since it is an active military site, visitors are subject to vehicle inspections.  When they arrived, the folks had to give security their driver licenses to be sure they were not wanted for anything.  They also had to open the hood to the Jeep and all the doors and stand away from the vehicle.  Dad said our vehicle really looked suspicious because of the quilts in the back that we use.  Mama was embarrassed because the Jeep is really dirty.  The soldier found a dollar bill and handed it to Dad.  BOL!  The folks passed the inspection and were allowed inside the fort. 

The first stop on their tour was the Frontier Army Museum.  It contained items dating back to 1804.

Frontier Army Museum

Stained glass window that was once in the church here.

Before electric, a bugle was played into this to wake soldiers.

President Lincoln rode in this carriage when he visited here.  See the white pitcher?  Beer that President Lincoln drank was poured from it.  There was nothing saying that he actually touched it.

Sleigh that was used by Colonel Leavenworth.

Horse drawn ambulance

After the folks left the museum, they took the driving tour.  There were several stops.

Lewis and Clark passed through the bluffs here.

One of the oldest cannons in the fort.

The stone at the bottom marks the starting point for the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails.

Old Military Prison

Clock Tower

Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery.  One of the oldest in the country.

Buffalo Soldiers Monument

Another view of the Buffalo Soldiers Monument.  It is probably really pretty when this is filled with water.

The grounds are really nice and it was extremely quiet.  They have a golf course, car wash, schools, restaurants and other things to make it a real community. The housing looks really nice. There are older homes as well as new homes.  The single men live in a housing unit that looked like dorms.  We have several soldiers who live in our campground.  I guess they like the freedom of living off base, but Mama said the base is really nice. We really scared one of the soldiers the other morning.  He was jogging at 5 a.m. and didn't expect to see us out and about.  BOL!  

Mama said she was happy to leave the fort.  She was nervous that they would get stuck inside if something happened.  There is a barrier that comes up in an emergency and that made her nervous.  BOL!  

This is what I did while the folks were away.

 Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Glad He Didn't Have To Go Through An Inspection

It Happened Here!

The Easter Bunny came to our campground!

What the....?

Yep, they are from the Easter Bunny.

How big is this bunny if he can carry all this stuff?

I smell him!

I think he went that way!

Joey and Scout,
The Greyhounds Who Are Hot On The Trail Of The Easter Bunny

Spring brings....

....grass!  Mama says we are like cows. She doesn't like us to eat it because well, you know what dogs do when they eat grass.  Yesterday, we took turns getting her attention so that the other one could eat it.  Mama was busy talking to another lady at the dog park and the lady told her that we were eating grass. Darn lady!  She is from New Mexico and she said her dogs are used to just dirt and rocks. They haven't discovered grass yet.  They will love it when they do.  BOL!

The park is filling up with weekend guests.  We like the weekenders. They are normally very friendly and fun.  There are a lot of cabins here that people rent as well as rooms that are called "suites".  I think they are like motel rooms. There are also a few houses that they rent.  It is usually busy here on weekends.

A house that sits on the lake and is available for families to rent.

Another pretty bush here.

What's Cooking In Mama's Kitchen

The folks have had another good week of meals thanks to Emeals.  The meal last night was Italian Beef Florentine and Fire Roasted Tomato-Cheese Tortellini.  Mama found it a little challenging only because of the limited space in the kitchen.  She took ground beef and formed it into patties. She then dredged it in flour, then dipped it into egg and then dredged it in panko breadcrumbs.  She then fried it.  After it was fried, she placed it in the oven to keep warm because she needed the skillet for the tortellini.  (She wished she had a rack to put it on because Rachael Ray said that keeps breaded items crisp. It is on her wish list.) She only has the electric skillet which she is going to throw it out very soon since everything is sticking to it and replace it with a regular skillet. She is tired of wasting her money on electric skillets.  Anyway, she put the tortellini in the skillet with oil and then added chicken broth, diced fire-roasted tomatoes and roasted garlic tomato sauce.  Meanwhile, she heated garlic Alfredo sauce and spinach together.  The sauce went over the burgers.  It was quite a production, but it was worth it.  The folks both really liked it. 

Tonight's meal is Grilled Teriyaki Chicken, Fried Rice and Stir-Fried Vegetables.  Mama just looked at the recipe.  It will be another juggling act with just an electric skillet, but she can do it. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Loves To Graze On Grass

Pushing and Pulling

The place we are staying is full of hills.  We hike nearly every day through the woods.  This week we have been hiking for about an hour after breakfast.   I always take the lead and help pull Mama up the hills. Scout is usually in the back doing the pushing.  BOL!  Sometimes, I have to pull Mama and Scout.  It is not easy, but it how I keep my butt muscles in such great shape.  Yesterday, we went a different way and we decided the best way to get Mama up the hill was for both of us to pull.  BOL!

This was a tough hill, but we made it with both of us pulling.

 It is really getting pretty here.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Slept For Eight Hours After His Hike Yesterday