Windows Live

We posted yesterday's entry using the Windows Live Software. It will allow us to make weblog entries offline when we do not have internet access and upload to the blog when we do have internet access.

The sofware has other features as well, but this is the one that we want to use.

It seems to work as we hoped.

Roots and Utz

Today we traveled to Manheim, Pa and the Roots Farmer's Market.  This is one of the first times that Maddy has been to a Farmer's Market.  It was not packed with shoppers as is the case in the summer.

Some of the items being sold at the Market.

As you can see it was easy to walk around and look things over before purchasing them.

 

After shopping at the market we stopped for lunch before heading back home.

 

We stopped in Hanover, Pa at the Utz potato chip factory.  They have a viewing gallery that is open to the public from 8am to 4pm Monday to Thursday and some Fridays.   They do not allow cameras in, so we do not have any pictures to post.  If you are in the area we recommend you take the time to see how some of the finest potato chips in the area are made.

A day with Maddy

Today as we started our usual morning walk, we saw the truck from the state fish hatchery driving towards one of the town's ponds. We altered our normal route so we could take Maddy to see the fish being released.

We we arrived at the pond, they were already at work tranfering fish from the truck into the pond. The fish being stocked are rainbow trout.

After our walk we went to the movies and saw "Horton hears a who." It was a nice movie for kids.

Easter With Family

This morning Leah's brother, Larry, stopped and pick-up his mother, Leah and I and took us all to Church. As with most Easter Sunday church services, the parking lot of filling up as were the pews.

After church, we went back to our house for Easter dinner. Our Son, Todd, his wife, Beth and Granddaughter, Maddy was already there waiting for us.

Leah fixed a very nice Easter Dinner with Ham, fresh green beans, scalloped potatoes, and a scalloped pineapple dish. All done to perfection I might add.

Leah also had fixed deviled eggs and pickled eggs. We noticed a few were missing from the plate, so we know that our early arrivals sampled some. :-)

Todd is always complaining that we never write about him in our blog, so we made certain that he was mentioned. We will also mention Beth, just to be sure we don't have any hurt feelings.


We also have a big treat in that Maddy will be spending several days with us. We always enjoy her visits, but boy, does she keep us busy.

We do hope that everyone has had a great Easter and a good year to come.

Spring Fever and Fan Motor Problem

Boy oh boy, what a day. The tempature was 68 degrees and Spring was in the air everywhere we went today. Some people were even talking about planting flowers. Now that is really pushing spring...

We are still in Maryland because of family medical problems and now we can add a motorhome problem to the list. On Monday Tom started the generator for its monthly run. When he started the front dometic Duo-Therm Heat pump, to put a load on the generator, the fan would not run. JR's RV Repairs in Gettysburg, Pa was called to look at the unit.

JR contacted Dometic and found out that there was a bad run of fan motors and as luck would have it, we have one. Dometic is sending a replace fan motor and we should have the motorhome back next week. The driveway looks empty without it being parked there.

And the Maryland Terps lost to Boston College in the ACC Tournment. Blew a 25 point lead... (:-(

The Boys and Their Toys

This past weekend the Taneytown Volunteer Fire Company held its annual toy auction and show. The auction was held Saturday evening and the show was held sunday. This was the first time that we were home and was able to help with the auction and show.

The amount of money that was being paid for some of these farm toys was shocking. One farm toy was sold for $400.00.

After seeing what was being paid for some of the farm toys it made is want to go home and raid the toy box to see what we can come up with...

Zoo Keeper Job Finished and USMC Museum

Well, our stint as zoo keepers came to an end this morning. All of the animals survived as did we.

Saturday and Sunday, Tom and Leah went to the Marine Corp. Museum. See the link on the left of the screen.

The Museum is open every day except Christmas from 9 to 5. After spending two days at the museum, we could have spent even more time there.

The museum is right off of Interstate 95 and the best part is admission is FREE.

We advise you not to go unless you have several hours to devote to your visit.

There are three tours each day at 10:00, 12:00 and 2:00 given by volunteers.

So if you are in the area or a former Marine plan on stopping at this fine Museum and learn about the history of the Marine Corp.

Off to be Zoo Keepers for the Weekend

Well we're off on a big adventure weekend. We are going to Virginia to look after our Son and daughter-in-law's zoo. Well, it's not really a zoo, it just seems like that. They have 3 dogs, 5 cats, 3 ferrets, two fish tanks and several frogs and a lizard. Oh, I almost forgot, our grandson, will also be in the mix for several days.

Our son and daughter-in-law are off to sunny California for a weekend conference at Huntington Beach.

Hopefully all of us will make it through the weekend intact.

Another Milestone Day

Hi All!

Well today was another milestone day in Tom's life. He received his first, of what we hope will be many, monthly social security payments.

Since Tom was born on December 29Th, he had to wait until the end of February to receive his payment. Those persons who were born on the 1st and 2Nd, several days later, received their payments the first week February. So persons born after Tom received their payments almost a month sooner. Our government's logic in action????

Bad News Day

This morning was a very, very bad news day for us. We were watching the news this morning when we learned that a friend's 39 year old son was killed in an auto accident yesterday evening. He was a dentist and the father of 6 children, all of whom were in the car with him at the time of the accident.

After hearing the name of the driver on the news this morning, we checked our email to see if we had received anything from our church as to weather or not this was the same person we knew. Much to our dismay it was.

We also received another email from a member of our camping group that his wife passed away yesterday evening. How shocking and sudden it was for us to read this.

After 3 months our sister-in-law is not showing any signs of improvement from the massive stroke she suffered the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

All of this just reminds us how short and precious life can be and to live and enjoy it.

Also this brings to mind a saying we heard years ago, "When you say goodbye to someone, say it like its the last time you will ever see them."

Winter Sucks (:>(

Well, as you have read, we are staying home due to family medical problems this Winter. This has been the first Winter we have had to stay home in Maryland since 1999 and it SUCKS!

Yesterday we had three separate snowfalls. As if that was not bad enough, last night things froze over and this morning was are getting rain on top of the ice and frozen snow. Boy, what a mess!



Icy Mess...



A motorhome shouldn't have to look like this...




Hopefully next Winter we will not be stuck up in Maryland.

PDA Crashed :-( . . .

Monday evening Tom had a great big PDA crash... Oh man, what a big pain that is going to be because it had not been synced for a month or more. The biggest pain is making certain the information that is stored in various places is current.

There are several programs that were on the PDA that does not get backed up to any place and reconstructing the information contained in them will be a terrible pain.

Lastly, we do geocaching and were setup to do it paperlessly using the PDA.

After this being the second PDA to die, we are not certain if we want to buy another one.

New email addresses

We have decided that we no longer need the Internet account we have had with the local library. We have been trying Google for awhile and it has proven to be a much better email system than the one used by the library. Since we are using DSL and no longer using dial-up, there just is no reason for us to continue renewing our account.

We have send our email address change notices to our friends and are in the transition period of changing to the new addresses.

We will also be moving our web page over to googlepages as well.

If Google goes under, we will be in a world of hurt because we are using many of the Google programs on a regular basis. If you have not tried any of many of them we highly recommend Picasa2, Web Albums, Google Earth, E-mail and Pages.

Mom's Funeral

We took 2 days to make the trip to Northwestern Ohio since we didn't leave Maryland until late afternoon. We stayed in Findlay, Ohio along with my cousin and her husband at the same motel.

On Tuesday we went to Deshler, Ohio for the viewing where many family members come and spend most of the afternoon and evening with us. We talked about many good times and traded funny stories to honor a woman who lived 81 years.

The funeral was held on Wednesday afternoon and mom would have liked how everything was handled at the funeral home. At the grave site it was a different story. During the graveside services, my sister said that the grave was in the wrong location.

My sister said that mom came to her the night before in a dream and told her that they would try to bury her in the wrong site. Sure enough, they did. The records at the cemetery were very poor and they tried to bury mom along side of her mother instead of beside dad. They got things taken care of and mom is now resting beside dad.

Sad News Day

As we were getting ready to go to church this morning, we received the call that we knew was coming but didn't want to receive. Tom's mother had just passed away. We decided to go to chuch and afterwards head for Ohio.

Mom had been in failing health for a number of years and her struggles have at last come to a peaceful end. We know that she has been reunited with Tom's father and brother along with other family members that have crossed over before.

First Post of 2008

Well, as readers of this blog knows there have not been any posting for several months. We have taken several local trips since the motorhome was fixed. I am happy to report there have not been any problems.

This Winter we were hoping to go to Az., but sometimes things don't go as planned. The Sunday after Thanksgiving our sister-in-law had a stroke. This means that my brother-in-law will have his hands full with her health care and will not be able to also look after my wife's mother. As result, it appears that we will be spending the Winter at home.

I talked with my sister several days ago and she told me that my mother is under hospice care and they are not holding out much hope for her to last thru January. We have been in a quandary as to what to do with the dog when we make the trip to Ohio for my mother. If it was not Winter, it would be a "no brainer," we would drive the motorhome.

This is a trip that I am not looking forward to, but one that we all make sooner or later.

The Motorhome is Fixed!

As your read in a previous post, we had a few problems with the motorhome. To recap, an exhaust header broke which in turn burned out not one, but two starters and the front end was damaged by the towing company.

Below are the before and after pictures of the damages.
Broken Exhaust Header
Replacement Exhaust Header

Front End Damage

Repaired Front End

As the pictures show, the exhaust header is now a single piece and the front end looks like new. Oh Boy, on the road again!!!

We got the motorhome back just in time for we are joint hosts of a camping outing next weekend.

Just a Bad Day

Today was just a very bad day. We are on the last leg of our trip back home when bad luck struck.

First off, about 600 hundred miles into the trip, we developed an exhaust leak up around the engine. The leak turned out to be a broken header on the passenger's side. The leak got progressively worse during the trip.

We spent Friday night in Flatbush, WV and early Saturday morning hit the road for home. We made a stop for fuel just West of Cumberland, Maryland and when we tried to start the motorhome, nothing happened when the key was turned. The battery was fine, so that left the starter as the problem.

We called our emergency road service and a tow truck was sent. The driver said there was a Ford garage about 5 miles away and would that be ok to tow it to. We agreed. We followed the tow truck and when we arrived at the lot and got out to unhook the motorhome, that's when we all saw the damage.

Somehow a safety chain got caught in the front end and tore it. The tow truck driver was very upset that this happened and could not understand how this happened. We didn't know either as we were following the tow truck and did not see anything odd take place. We told him don't get too upset as it was just one more thing in an already bad day for us.

The service manager was still at the garage, so we were able to speak to him and make arrangements for the starter to be repaired. We packed a few items in the car, locked the motorhome and dropped off the keys in the garage. We drove the car home without any additional problems.

St. Louis, Mo

We stayed in East St. Louis, Ill., Just across the Mississippi River at the Casino Queen Campground.



The Gateway Arch was very visible from the campground. It was very easy to cross the river into St. Louis. All we had to do was call security from the campground phone and a shuttle van picked us up and took us to the light rail station.



Since there was a ballgame today, we were able to purchase tickets that were good up to two hours after the end of the game, good deal!



We could see our motorhome from the top of the arch through the haze.

Yes, the trams are that small!


Because the South side tram cars were out of service, we had to wait almost 2 hours before we could go to the top of the arch.



We stayed in St. Louis and had dinner before heading back across the river to the motorhome.

Kearney, Nebraska

We stopped in Kearney, Nebraska at the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument.



It is dedicated to showing the road west and has an interesting presentation using headphones as you move from area to area. They also allow you to boondock on the parking lot. We spend the night and were joined by several other units and a truck. It was hot and muggy and we should have run our generator and air conditioners like one of the other motorhomes did.