On Our Own

Dad left yesterday at 2:45 a.m. for the airport.  He didn't even wake us up to say goodbye.  Mama took him to the airport and was back around 4:30 a.m.  She fixed breakfast after she got home and then went to bed for two hours.  She then fixed a big batch of chili. She froze most of it to eat later.  After that, she started painting the bedroom.  She has been wanting to paint that room since we moved here. 

This is the before.  It is dark purple with gold.

Red paint from a previous time was on the ceiling.  The picture shows the color of the purple better than the other one.

 Mama has never painted before.  She has watched Dad many times.  Dad never uses tape to prevent paint from getting where it shouldn't. Mama put tape around the door, but that ended up not working so well.  She is going to have to paint over some purple that the tape covered up. She didn't use tape on the ceiling and she did just fine.  The roller did hit the ceiling a few times, so she will have to cover that up, but it's not a big deal because she was able to cover up the red paint without any issues.  Dad said hitting the ceiling was a rookie mistake. 

Mama says her technique would not be approved of by Dad, but she got the job done and she thinks it looks just fine.  It took her about five hours and Dad said that was really good considering she did it all on her own and had to move furniture, etc.

How many coats of paint do you think it took?  It only took one thanks to the paint that has primer in it.

This is the room now.  It is a sand color.

The room looks much bigger now.  Mama is very happy with the look of it. She wanted it to be a little darker, but she is not painting it again.  LOL   We have one more purple room that needs to be painted.  Mama is not going to do it today because she is sore and tired from yesterday. She has other things that she can do today.

Dad arrived in Jamaica without any issues.  His cell phone doesn't work there, so last night he called us from an office phone.  We are not sure he will be allowed to do that on a daily basis.  He knows the general manager there, so it may not be an issue.  We think he is going to enjoy his stay there more than St. Thomas.

We were asked what Dad does for a living. He works for a major hotel chain.  He fills in for managers when their position are empty.  That is why we don't have much notice as to where we are going or for how long because the position could be filled quickly or it might take months.

Guess what?  I have been running in the yard!  In case you don't know my story, I had a leg injury and had not been allowed to run before our HUGE adventure began.  I had two surgeries in the nine months that I lived here.  Well, I guess I did run once before we left, but now I am legal.  Scout and I ran and ran on Sunday.  Last night, I was running and stopped to dig a hole.  Mama says we have a mole in the yard and that's why the ground collapsed and now we have a deep hole.  The yard is now closed to us until she fills it with dirt.  She says we could put our leg in the hole and get hurt.  It never ends.   I started digging another hole and Mama said "Joey, are you digging another hole?"  I quickly laid on the hole so that she couldn't see it.  I'll finish it later.  BOL

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Likes To Run And Dig Holes

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

A Tale Of Two Beachgoers

We were very excited about going to the beach yesterday.  Dad said we should wait until the afternoon to go so that we didn't freeze in the water.  We decided to walk a trail in the morning.  It leads to the beach. We put our beachwear on which means we both wore harnesses because Scout gets very excited in the sand.  Scout was not impressed with the sand here though. Let me tell you, it is harder walking in deep sand then you might think.  We walked and walked and it was tough going uphill in the sand.  Then something bad happened. We ran into steps!

Scout refused to go up.

I was not happy that Scout refused to go up the steps. I refused to come down for a while. It wasn't just that set of steps though.  There were steps as far as we could see.  Mama is going to buy a postcard today that shows all the steps so that we can show you.  There is no way Scout would have made it.  There was nothing on our trail guide that indicated all the steps.  The folks went to the visitor's center later in the day and there was a map and description that said the trail had many steps and not recommended for children. :::sigh:::

We came back to the RV and rested while the folks went to the visitors' center and then to lunch.  After they came home, we put our beachwear on and we drove to the beach.  Oh, boy!  We were very excited.

Our excitement didn't last long because one of us got very scared.  There were kites all of over and one of the kites even made a buzzing noise.  Not good!

 

So, who do you think was scared?

Was it Scout who was scared?

Was it me who was scared?

It was Scout, of course. I'm not scared of anything.  Scout wouldn't get near the water.  Mama was so disappointed because Scout loves water and she has been wanting to take her to the beach for years.  If it wasn't for the kites, we think she would have been okay. 

I loved the beach!  It was hard for Mama to take my photo and play with me at the same time.Dad couldn't help because he had to stay with Scout who refused to move.  I ran into the water and then when the water chased me, I drank it.  It was so cool!

This is all that Scout did.

Scout was very upset with Mama for taking her to the beach.  She refused to have anything to do with her for a few hours.  This morning Mama said the word "beach" and Scout gave her a stink-eye. 

I am having a blast here. This morning, we walked on a trail.  Scout almost gave a man a heart attack because she did like a ninja move on him as he walked by. Sand can make Scout a little nuts.  We apologized to him and hope we don't see him again. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Loves The Beach