Adjusting To A Home Without Wheels

It is harder than you think adjusting to being at home.  Mama keeps trying to flush the toilet with her foot. (The RV toilet has a foot pedal to flush.)  Mama opens the cabinets and says "We have so much stuff!"  She has started the purging though.  She has three bags of clothes ready to go to Goodwill.  There is a lot more sorting to do.  Mama is enjoying having a large shower.  She loves having a washer and dryer again. She has spent the past two days just doing laundry. 

Dad has been busy getting things in order for us. He had new tires put on the Jeep. It rides really smooth now and it is much quieter.  Our old tires had these bumps on them that made it very loud and rough.  Dad fixed the motion sensor light that is in the backyard so that Mama can now turn it on with a light switch instead of us having to turn it on by going in the yard. It sometimes wouldn't turn on and Mama would have to duck under a deck board and go down our ramp to make it come on.  She didn't like doing that.  It now comes on by just using the light switch.  Mama is happy.

The folks bought paint for the bedrooms.  Mama is going to paint them next week.  The people who lived here before painted two of the bedrooms a very dark purple.  The master bedroom is dark purple with gold. The new color is desert something.  It is a cream/light brown.  Mama is also going to paint trim and doors and Dad will put that up when he gets back next month.  The house will look nice when the painting and the trim are complete. 

Mama applied for a new debit card today.  Her debt number was stolen in Texas in May and she couldn't get a new one until we came home.  She also went grocery shopping today, so I think we are pretty set for our first week without Dad.

I am sad that we are no longer on the road. I look at the RV and whine.  I do like having extra room to run in the house.  Our bully sticks arrived yesterday, so I have been busying chewing.  Scout and I both got baths today because Mama said we were dirty from the beach.  We didn't leave a ring in the bathtub, so I think she was wrong. Dad agreed with us.  We are super soft now though.

Our drive coming home from Indiana was an easy one.  Here are the photos that Mama was too tired to upload for me the other day.

Goldie at the dump station at Indiana Dunes

Bye campground....it was fun!

Ready for takeoff.

A last look at Lake Michigan.  See the blue in the middle?  That is the lake.

Entering Illinois from Indiana

St. Louis, here we come!

Scout was tired on the trip home.

The Gateway Arch - it is always a welcome site when returning from a trip.

Scout is happy to be so close to home.

Back at home - watching the cable man install our cable box.

Scout watching the cable man.

Okay, the cable man is kind of boring.

The cable man is very boring.

Dad leaves for the airport at 3 a.m. on Monday.  He will be gone for a month, but then he will be home for about 2.5 weeks.  We will really miss him, of course, but I think Mama will keep us occupied with all her painting and purging.  We will update you next week on the painting. Mama is ready to get rid of the purple.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Dreaming Of His Next Adventure

5 Months and 5 Days

Our HUGE adventure lasted five months and five days.  We arrived home this afternoon. Mama took pictures along the way, but she is too tired to help me post them. Actually, we do not know for sure where the camera is. It may be in the motor home.

There was a lot to do when we arrived home. Dad turned on a few lights for us, but couldn't turn everything on because he needed to drain the hot water heater.  Once that was done, he turned on the water.  He then filled up the water heater.  He then ran bleach through the water softener.  He is actually still doing that at 9:30 p.m. The electric is now all on, but we still can't drink the water. There is a lot to do when you shut a house down for so long.  Things should be back to normal tomorrow.  Mama is anxious to do laundry.  She has a weeks' worth of dirty clothes since our last place didn't have laundry facilities  The "pigman's" place had high iron content in the water and Mama wasn't happy with how the clothes washed. 

It took a while to unload the motor home and Mama is still not sure where everything is.  She started unpacking things, but got tired, so now things are just in piles. 

No one knew we were coming home today, so we surprised them.  They thought we were coming home on Sunday.  We were sneaky.   Grandma and Grandpa came over and brought us some KFC (fried chicken) for dinner.  Yum!

Mama has been worried about the house, but it seems to be just fine. Grandma came over earlier in the day and  put air fresheners out and it smelled really good when we walked in.  

We were confused when we walked in the house. It looked different to us.  We found all our beds though and we have been trying them out. We haven't played in our yard yet. We knew we were coming home, but it is confusing being here.  Mama keeps saying the house is too big.  She prefers living with less. She plans on purging a lot because she doesn't need all the things that she has here.  She wants to become a minimalist. The folks have learned while living on the road that they don't need much to live.  It is very freeing. It sounds like we will be donating a lot of things in the near future.

This will be a busy weekend.  The cable man is coming tomorrow afternoon. Dad is hoping to get tires for the Jeep. It really needs them. Mama is going to do laundry. We are going to hang out and enjoy being home.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Dreaming Of The Next HUGE Adventure

Another Day, Another Hike

We went on another morning hike yesterday. Scout loves to hike in the morning.  We are not sure how far we walked.  We started off in the campground and then we decided to go a different way on the road and the next thing we knew, we were at a boardwalk that crossed over a marsh. (I don't like boardwalks because I couldn't mark things without falling off.)  We decided to keep going and we ended up on Trail 10.  We walked it for quite a while, but turned around because it is ten miles round trip.  We are not ready for thalt yet.  We saw a couple coming up the trail in the exact same spot that Scout did the Ninja move earlier this week.  Scout had been practicing here jumping moves in the sand before we saw them. Mama held onto her this time and told the couple that she is really nice, but excited in the sand.  They passed by us quickly.

Sunday, the folks ate at a restaurant in Valparaiso.  It is called Industrial Revolution.  Dad saw a brochure on the place and wanted to try it.  The restaurant is decorated with statues of the American worker.  It is unique.

See the men on top of the building?

There is a train track near the ceiling.  The train comes by from time to time.

Morning Shift Burger - Over easy egg, applewood smoked bacon and cheddar cheese on a fresh croissant. 

New Industrial Burger - Cajun seasoned, covered with pepper jack cheese, carmelized onions, jalapeños and spicy chipotle mayo, served on a patio bun. 

Mama chose the Morning Shift Burger.  The waitress brought out a raspberry syrup to add to the burger.  Mama just dipped the bread into it and really liked it.  It was a good burger.  The burgers come with garlic wedges or sweet potatoes fries.  They both chose the garlic wedges which were really good.

Dad had the New Industrial Burger and he liked it, too.

There were so many choices on the menu.  They would both like to go back.  Mama would like to try the burger that has roast beef on top.



The food in this area has been really good! We are sad that our time here is ending soon.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Loves Indiana

Lots Of Hiking

Mama has been taking us hiking each day while Dad is at work. Monday afternoon, we set out to hike trail 9. We walked all the way across the campground and then across the parking lot to get to the trail. Scout THEN decided she didn't want to continue. She just laid down in the sand. Grrr!!! I was not happy. I refused to go back and Scout refused to go forward. I ended up loosing. Mama ended getting upset with both of us. We took Scout back to the RV and then Mama and I set out again.

Come on, Mama! 

 We walked on trail 9 for a while, but Mama said we couldn't walk the whole way because it was 3.5 miles each way.  She didn't want to walk 7 miles.

I wasn't happy about taking a shortcut, so I peed on the sign.

 Mama was a little nervous that maybe we took a wrong turn.  There are several trails and she didn't know which one this shortcut trail was on. We had a map, but....anyway.   We didn't see another soul during our entire hike.  I started getting a little concerned at one point, but then Mama said "Look, Joey, we have been here before!"  The shortcut was on trail 10, but it crossed over trail 9.

Yesterday morning, we set out on our morning walk.  We decided to walk on the main road. We walked much further than we planned and before we knew it, we were at the beach!  Chicago is across the lake and we can see it.  It doesn't show up with our camera though. It's 50 miles away.  Mama said "Kids, that's Chicago.  That is where you Dad is working."  Pretty cool!  We didn't go into the water.  Scout turned her butt to the water, so we didn't push it.  We were the only ones there, so no kites.  We walked back home and we were tired. We walked 2 miles. Scout did fine.  She loves to walk first thing in the morning.

Mama went shopping Monday and Tuesday.  She did not buy anything yesterday, but today, she bought yarn and some things from the National Park Store.

This is a magnet that shows all the steps that we would have taken on our trail on Sunday.  It's hard to see here, but this is all steps.

 Mama bought a pin to put on her walking stick.  Well, she doesn't have a walking stick yet, but she is going to get one for next year.  She said that as much as she has walked here, she deserves a pin. She also had her passport book stamped and bought the Indiana Dunes sticker for the passport book.

Mama said she ate lunch at Godfather's Pizza in Michigan City. They have an all you can eat buffet.  She said it was really good.  She didn't bring us any.


Joey,
The Greyhound Who Deserves A Pin For Hiking, Too

Climbing Mount Baldy

Saturday night, the folks ate at Wagner Ribs.  Mama was excited to eat there because the restaurant has been voted the best ribs in the region since 1993. Mama was not disappointed.  She was really delighted when she saw they had a baby back rib/ribeye combo. It was a lot of food, but since the folks didn't eat lunch, she went for it.  She ended up bringing home half the ribeye.  We had some and then the folks had the rest for breakfast. The baby back ribs were excellent.  The ribeye was better than most.

Breaded Mushrooms

Side Salad

Baby Back Ribs and Ribeye

Dad's Meal - Crab Cakes and Baby Back Ribs

Dad's side item - Cornbread Cakes

This was one of the best meals that the folks have had in a while.  The one complaint they had was that the salad came out with the appetizer and then the rest of the meal came out immediately.  They like their food to come out slower than that.  They would love to eat here again.



Sunday, after our failure to walk to the beach, the folks went on their own hike. They climbed Mount Baldy.  It is roughly 125 feet tall and is the largest "living" dune in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. As it moves, it buries everything in its path, including trees.  It is moving approximately five feet a year.  They are predicting that the parking lot will be covered in five years.

Mount Baldy as seen from the parking lot.

It was a tough climb to the top. There were some people who didn't make it.  Mama didn't know if she was going to make it.  It was a hard climb uphill, but walking in deep sand made it even harder.

The following pictures are from the top of Mount Baldy.

Light houses in the water as seen from Mount Baldy.

Going down is so much easier.

There are so many trails here. If you like to hike, this is the place to come.  We have ten trails in our park, but there are many more outside the park.  It's a great place to visit!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Doesn't Need To Wear His Boot In The Sand