Looking For A Lull

Labor day is past now and I'm feeling it a bit this morning.  We spent the bulk of the day helping Katia and Tony put in fence posts.  I'm just glad nobody caught it on film.  If it was widely known that I participated in manual labor the requests would come pouring in and my poor old body couldn't take that. Their fence is coming along nicely, but it is going to take longer than initially anticipated I think.  The bulk of the work seems trivial on the face of it but is much more daunting when you get started.  It will be nice when it is done though. I'm thinking about moving Chappy back to the house this coming weekend.  Since he has to be out of the park by the end of the month and we can't get back to Michigan soon enough because of my travel schedule for work, it seems best to bring him home and just use the time he's here to load up and prepare for the long trip coming up.  It will make it easier for us to get things put together for sure....

Not writing a lot today.  Very bummed about the loss of our wonderful Saratoga.  I miss her.

I mentioned our Grand-kitten and Grand-puppy before but I haven't put any pictures up here yet.  I thought it is high time I do that! This is Freckles.  She is staying with us for a few days while TW airs out his place from the water.  She is a ton of fun and she has already helped out around the house by catching a mouse! This is Serenity catching some rays on the deck with "Aunt Donk".  She is a lot of fun.  Very curious, but it's a laid back curious.  She is coming to stay for a bit while Katia and Tony are on vacation.  I can hardly wait.  I don't want to forget "The boys" Charlie and Grinch, although I keep forgetting to take pictures of them when we visit.  They don't come to visit us since they are more excitable and that many dogs in one place is a lot to handle!

We took the first load of supplies out to Chappy at the campground and we are planning on staying there will all 3 dogs before starting our Michigan leg of the trip. The first morning, Sara Dog, gets dropped at the Kennel.  She is getting old and is too much for Mom Tyler to look after.  Katia tried when we did the Florida/Georgia trip, but it proved too much for her too.  Then we hit the road.  We've divided the trip into 3 parts going west. Updated map to include our Stops Ohio to Michigan (4H 27Min 291 Miles).  There we drop off Rocky Dog at Mom Tyler's and pick up Big Joe.  We will spend the night before Karen, Big Joe, The Donk and I move on. Michigan to Minnesota (9H 22Min ~650 miles)  We have booked accommodations at a fine camping establishment. Minnesota to South Dakota (7H 472 Miles)  The 7 hours here does not include the stop we are going to make in Wall SD so Big Joe can visit Wall Drug.  It is kitschy yes, but it real...

We moved to Ohio in 2007 from New Jersey after I accepted a position working for a company in Cleveland.  A few years later we purchased our house just NW of Akron and that has been where we have lived for the past 9 years. We have lived in Ohio for 12 years.  That is the longest period of time I have ever lived anywhere in my life. Karen and the kids where all born in Michigan and that is where we got our start together.  We have family and friends there and visit periodically though I don't think I could find myself living there again. The southwest has always had a pull on me that I can't describe.  I love the desert, the mountains, the vast open spaces and the weather. Too often in the east and Midwest everything is so cramped.  If your neighbor isn't within handshake distance from your house you are likely separated by corn.  I can see the appeal to some but it just isn't for me.  Then there is the cold months.  The snow, the ice, the...

Years ago we found a need to get out of the house for a change of scenery.  Our kids were younger, we'd spent months housebound with nothing much more than an inflatable backyard pool for entertainment and we were looking for something new to help us get away without a lot of work.  We purchased a used trailer off of Craigslist and put it on a permanent spot in a campground about 45 minutes from the house and spent many weekends enjoying times out there. For a few years we kept going out to the trailer, but found that as the kids were getting older that we spent less and less time there enjoying ourselves and more and more time at home doing the same things in our back yard that we'd do at the campground.  That coupled with the age of the old girl and her desperate need for more work that we were willing to put into her got us thinking about purchasing a 'Real Trailer'.  I bought my truck at the end of that summer with the intention of looking for a 5th wheel we wo...

Change comes whether you're ready for it or not.  It's good to embrace change, accept it, welcome it and most importantly create it. We've had a lot of change over the last few years.  Our kids have grown, started lives of their own, and become adults themselves.  This has led us to have a lot more time on our hands.  Some of this time has been consumed with hobby's, self-improvement, and traveling. Travel has been one of the things that we have really enjoyed together.  We had our first vacation without the kids to Mexico and the following year we spent some time in Ireland.  We've made multiple trips to historical sites and small trips to visit friends and family. Last year we decided it was time to purchase an RV, something we had planned to do for a few years.  I had already purchased a truck so that we would be able to tow a 5th wheel trailer a little more than a year before and we decided that it was high time to bite the bullet and make th...