FDR Library/Museum and Home

Today the folks visited the FDR Library/Museum and his home.  He was the 32nd President.  He was elected four times, but died during his fourth term.

The house that he lived in with Eleanor was his childhood home.  It was actually his Mother's home and they moved in with her.  It seems that his Mother was very close to him.  When he was away at school, she moved a block away from the school so that she could be close to him.

The house started out with just the middle part and then the third floor and wings on each side were added as Franklin's family grew.  The middle part of the 3rd floor was the children's playroom. They could ride bikes in there.

Back of the house.

View from back of the house.

Entry way

Living room

This is the bed he was born in.  He weighed 10 pounds.

His bedroom. Eleanor had her own room.

His favorite dog was a Scottish Terrier

This is where his dog slept.

Garden

His tombstone is the size of the desk that he used.   He is buried next to it and not under it.

See the two raised areas?  That is him next to the flag and the other is Eleanor.

His favorite dogs; Scottish Terrier and German Shepherd are buried next to the sundial.

After the tour, the folks ate lunch at the cafe in the visitor's center.  They then turned the museum.

FDR was the first President to have a library. Hoover was a President before FDR, but his library was not constructed until 1962.  FDR's library was constructed while he was still in office!  It opened in 1941.  He did it because he wanted to make sure that none of his papers were lost.  He actually had an office in the library that he used. It was open to the public.  Mom remembers when we visited the George H. W. Bush Library and one of our readers commented that she thought it was odd that he was still alive and had a library.  We figured she wasn't a Republican and it bothered her because it was Bush that we were talking about (BOL!) but Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and both Bushes all had their libraries built while they were alive, but they were not still in office like FDR.

FDR Library

Hat that FDR wore in all four Presidential campaigns.

Campaign buttons

Bible and glasses

Rocking horse that belonged to FDR as a child.

Fala, FDR's favorite dog.

The is is the office that FDR used in the library.

Painting of his mother.

Fala

Items belonging to Fala.

Photo of Fala

Desk that FDR used in the White House.

He had a lot of stuff on his desk.

FDR painting.

 FDR was stricken with polio in 1921.  He worked hard to make it look like he could walk.  He usually had a person on one side of him and he used a cane for the other side.  There are only four known photos of him in a wheelchair.  There is one video that shows him in the wheelchair.  It was thought that a person who was disabled did not have a full mind and that is why he worked so hard not to be shown in the chair.  It definitely was a different time because now the press would definitely be publishing pictures of him.

He really did a lot for the country.  He took over during the depression. He started the CCC, social security, FDIC and other things.  He was in office when Pearl Harbor was attacked. 

Eleanor was his fifth cousin.  Mom thought it was funny that her last name was already Roosevelt.  Her middle name is actually Eleanor.  Her first name is Anna.

Mom loved that he was a dog lover.  She was really thinking he was a great guy. She then learned that he had a mistress.  It was Eleanor's secretary. The affair started in 1916 and in 1918, Eleanor found the love letters. She told him they could divorce if he wanted that.  His Mother told him there would be no divorce.  Eleanor then told him the affair had to end. He said it would.   Do you know what though?  His mistress was with him on the day that he died in 1945!  She wasn't with him when he actually died, but she had been with him earlier in the day.  Grrrr!  On April 12, 1945, while at Warm Springs, Georgia, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

I think the folks are going to visit Val-Kill which is Eleanor Roosevelt's cottage.  It was built while FDR was still alive.  It was her get away.  I guess she needed it to get away from him and his Mother. The woman needed some privacy. She had her own bedroom in the house she shared with FDR, but her mother-in-law's room connected to hers. That seems odd.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Had A Nice Long Nap Today

I'm In New York!

Here I am with Lady Liberty

Central Park.  Oh, I mean Central Bark

Entering New York

If you are caught texting three times while driving, you loose your license here.

We said goodbye to our campground near Baltimore today.  We hope the rat stayed behind.

In front of the covered wagon at our campground.

Ferns and the dead mushroom.

Bye, bye wooded site.

Remember how we said the people in the office were not friendly?   The lady today was extremely nice to Mom.  Maybe she was happy we were leaving.  BOL!

Our drive was pretty easy today.  We will be here until Tuesday and then we head to Vermont for 10 days or something like that.

We have another wooded site.  The campground roads are a little narrow.  We don't have satellite, but we have cable. They charge $2 a day for me.  Dad said I need to use a lot of their poo bags while I am here.  They also charge the folks $6 a day for activity fees.  Mom doesn't like that because they don't use the pool or anything like that.  It is a pricey place but all the campgrounds in this part of the country are high.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Likes New York So far

Rats!

Mom had mixed feelings about leaving here.  She LOVES the area  She loves Pennsylvania.  I think if their winters were a little better, this is where she would want to live.  She doesn't love this campground however.  We have a great site, but the office workers and owner are not friendly at all.  We only have to deal with them every two weeks.  We have to go in and pay our electric bill every two weeks because we are "WORKERS".  They say it in such a negative way.  We are not workers for them, but we are not here for leisure so we are called WORKERS.

Monday night, Dad had to go to Washington DC for a dinner.  It was a two hour drive each way.  He didn't get home until after midnight.  Mom and I went for a walk and our neighbors stopped us.  They told us that they saw a RAT walk on our sewer line and it climbed into our compartment that has the sewer connection.  YIKES!  The neighbor asked Mom if she wanted him to see if he was still there and she said yes.  He opened the compartment and looked inside, but didn't see him.  We checked it out and didn't see a way for him to get inside our RV, but they are good at squeezing into small areas.

Here I am waiting and watching for Dad to come home.

We talked to our neighbors for quite a while.  The rat has been under their BBQ cover. The neighbor accidentally discovered him.  They are going to put traps out since they are going to be here until November.  We think the rat probably lives under the porch of the people behind us.  They have a very messy place.  We are surprised they are not told to clean it up.  Yeah, rats, mice and other things could definitely be living in that mess.  Mom thought about telling the owner, but we would probably be the ones banned from here and not the messy people.  She does things like that. We may need to come back here, so we need to be careful.

Mom asked Dad if the rat could get inside.  He said it wouldn't be easy, but yes, he could.  She couldn't sleep Monday night.  She was scared to turn the lights off thinking that the rat would appear and crawl all over her while she was sleeping.  Tuesday morning, Dad said he didn't say that about the rat.  We don't know what to believe now.  We think we saw the rat under the RV Tuesday evening, but we are not sure.  Mom got down on her knees and didn't see him.  Then she had trouble getting back up.  It's a good thing he wasn't there because she would have fallen on her butt.  BOL!

Mom is no longer sad about leaving thanks to the rat.  She and Dad actually starting putting our outdoor things away last night because it is supposed to rain the rest of the week.  We just have to hope the rat has not chewed on any wires.  That could be bad.

Remember our big mushroom?

It was so pretty last week.

This is how it looks today.

We may be making a change to our vacation plans.  Dad wanted to stop at an RV place in Michigan but they do not have any appointments available.  That gives us about five extra days.  I think we are going to go to Boston to see the JFK Library.  We should call this our Presidential Library vacation because we will see three.  The only one we will have left after this trip is Clinton's.  Yes, we have not seen Clinton's even though we are from Missouri and it is in Arkansas.  BOL!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Smelled The Rat

I Went To A Concert!

Concert

 Elvis came to our campground on July 3rd.  Since our site was across from the "concert", I was able to attend.  Last year, Mom and I got kicked out of the concert.  We were told "NO DOGS ARE ALLOWED!"  We thought that was really rude since Elvis likes Hound Dogs.  This year they couldn't kick me out because I was in my own site.  Ha!

Elvis did a warm-up act.  Mom got a couple of pictures of him.  He looks different than the photos I have seen.  A few years ago, I was at Graceland!  I sniffed the gate. That was a fun time.  Mom and I like Elvis, but Dad is not a fan.

Rehearsal

This was our view from our site.

There was a band that appeared before Elvis and Dad liked them. They sang songs from the 70's and 80's.    We watched Elvis before he went on stage.  He was really nervous.

Finally, it was time for Elvis to start singing. He did a good job.

Chillin' during the concert.

Elvis dancing with a fan.  Notice they are dancing on the pad that is for dancing only.  It finally got some use.

People seemed to enjoy the show.  They turned their golf carts headlights on and off to show they liked the show.  I went to bed at 9 p.m., but the show continued well past my bedtime.

UNSHRINKING CLOTHES

Mom recently shrunk a brand new shirt.  She was not happy. It was the second new shirt that she has shrunk.  She decided to do some research and found a way to unshrink her clothes.  She did it and it worked!  However, she just discovered that she put one of those shirts in the dryer and she shrunk it again. She is now going through the process of fixing it.  Here is the link if you are interested.  How To Unshrink Clothes

 

Still Working

 Mom is still doing her online job.  It keeps her quiet during the day which means I can nap.  

 

She received her Amazon order.  It was delivered to the UPS store. She is happy with her new skillet and shoes.  Actually, she hasn't used the new skillet yet because she has fallen in love with her cast iron skillet.  She signed up for a free class online and found the cast iron is really easy to clean. The instructor said to use soap and water to clean it.  Mom has done that in the past, but thought she needed to re-season it after using soap and water.  You do not have to do that.  You just need to dry it really well. 

 

Getting Ready To Move On

We will be leaving this area on Saturday.  Dad starts a three week vacation.  We will be headed to New York to see FDR's museum and home. We will then head to Vermont to buy some maple syrup and to attend the Escapade!  Escapade is Escapees rally.  After that, we are headed to Grand Rapids to tour President Ford's museum.

Remembering Scout

Mom has had a hard time being here.  This is where we were when Scout died.  Mom hates walking past the site that we were in last year.  Scout was only here for nine days, so it shouldn't bother Mom, but it does.  This Friday, July 15th, is the anniversary of Scout's death.  We have no plans to do a special blog post about her because it upsets Mom too much, but that doesn't mean that we will not be thinking of her and remembering.

 We miss you Scout!!!

 

Joey, 

The Greyhound Who Is Ready To Hit The Road 

Weekenders Are Out In Full Force

Our park is already busy with weekenders. We have seen a steady stream of campers buzz past our site since Wednesday.  It seems that many people are getting a jump on the holiday weekend. 

A Leak

I think the folks are going to be close to home this weekend.  Dad has to work on a water leak we have.  We had a heavy rain this week and all at once Mom started feeling rain on her while she was sitting in the recliner.  She looked up and saw water coming through the spot where our antenna is connected.  Mom put a bucket under it because holding a towel up to it was not working.

See the drop. It was a steady stream.

Water Issues

 We didn't have water Tuesday night into Wednesday.  They have been having well issues here.  The folks had to take cold showers on Wednesday because the hot water didn't have any pressure at all.  Dad thought it might be a problem of ours since we had cold water but not hot. He thought our lines might be clogged.  He planned on flushing them out this weekend, but then the water was back to normal by Wednesday afternoon. The folks are very happy that it is fixed.

The Jeep

Dad took the Jeep in on Monday because the transmission is acting up.  We had it replaced last year in California and it is downshifting hard.  There is also a knocking noise coming from the engine.  Dad had to rent a car.  He ended up with an Expedition.  That thing was huge!  Dad got irritated with the repair shop because they never called to tell him anything.  He called them on Wednesday and didn't get a response.  He called yesterday and they said there was nothing wrong with it.  He was pretty upset and Dad doesn't get angry. He told them he was going to drive it and he would be back in an hour to show them what it does.  He thought maybe it needed to get warm for it to happen.  He drove it for two hours and it didn't do it.  It did do it on his way home from work though and when they went grocery shopping last night.  BOL!  He said the people were never ever nice even when he dropped it off.  They changed the oil. Our total bill was $18 which was shocking.  They said oil prices were half off this week.  We doubt they put high mileage oil in it like we do.  They also washed it and I have to say that I never seen it look so nice.  We can see every hail ding in it now.  We were surprised they didn't charge us for looking at it.  The rental car was $200.  Mom was anxious about the rental car because it was $400 a week.  We are not going to go back because we are only here for two more weeks and they probably wouldn't get it fixed before we left.

 Our Site

This is growing in our site.

Last week.

Yesterday

It looks like coral.  Dad looked it up and it is okay to eat.  Mom said that you can't believe everything that you read on the Internet.  She said we will just admire it and not eat it.

Job

Mom is still really enjoying her "job".  She has almost made double what her goal was for this week.  She calls it her "fun money" because she spends it on fun stuff.  It looks like she will be buying an attachment for the central vac system because she broke her vacuum this week. She lifted up on the canister and the lid broke off.  Dad said he will look at it, but it is probably best if she just uses the central vac.  The other vacuum takes up space in Dad's closet and he is not happy about that.  (Mom doesn't have a closet, just saying. BOL)  Mom doesn't like the central vac because it doesn't have a good attachment for the rugs, so that is what she will be buying.  It hurts her back to use it.  She doesn't consider that a fun buy because she hates cleaning.  I hate the vacuum and I am not fond of the central vac either. One time Mom was using the central vac and it disconnected from the wall and shot straight up to the front of the RV.  :-O

Amazon Order

Mom placed an order with Amazon last weekend with her "fun money".  She ordered a new pair of Skechers and a T-fal skillet that works with the induction cook top. She had it shipped to the UPS store because we can't have anything shipped to us here.  Well, Amazon shipped it via FedEx.  Mom contacted Amazon and asked them if FedEx would deliver it to the UPS store because she thought they would only deliver if it was shipped by UPS. The lady checked and said that it wouldn't be a problem.  We have it in writing, so we will see.  It will not arrive until late next week.  Mom thought about having it re-routed to a FedEx store, but didn't want to tamper with it since Amazon said it will be fine.

Elvis

Elvis will be here on Sunday night performing from 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm.  He will be right across from our site.  I am sure we will hear him from inside the RV.  He will have us up past our bedtime.  It will be fun though.

Holiday Weekend

Hope you all have a nice and safe holiday weekend.  I am just going to chill with my folks. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Needs A Shirt Saying He Is Not A Whippet