It turned out to be a beautiful day here in Hiawatha, even though it was 90 degrees today.  The folks here in Iowa, said that it's really rare when they see this kind of hot weather so early in the season.  While we started preparations for lunch the two grandpa's took care of the two little ones.  After lunch, Becky and Chris' sister Rebecca, decided to teach Laura how to have a water fight. 

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Tomorrow, we start getting the trailer ready so as to pull out on Wednesday morning, heading for Fairmont, MN.  We had a good stay with Becky & Chris and thankful for their extra bathroom so as to take a hot shower.  While here, we found water under our kitchen sink and after Bob talked with some RV people, it seems we need to replace our hot water heater.  We are scheduled to do this on Thursday in Sioux Falls, SD.

It has been a great Sunday!  Two month old Addison was dedicated today during the early church service.  Chris and Becky timed it just right so that both sets of grandparents could be there for this occasion.  After church we journeyed up to Stone City to visit with some dear friends.  They live in this huge 12,000 + sq. foot stone horse barn where 100 Belgian horses used to be housed back years ago.  It was built in 1889 out of lime stone.  They often have tour groups come through from all over to see this magnificent piece of structure.

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We are now in Hiawatha, Iowa parked in our daughter, Becky's driveway.  We will be here until May, 31th.  I'm especially having fun playing with 22 month old Laura and new granddaughter Addison.

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We are at a beautiful campground here in Oxford, IA.  Our trailer is sitting up on a hill and we are able to look down on the lake and watch the geese and their goslings.  We had a fun time with our daughter and granddaughters visiting Kalona today.  Kalona is a Mennonite community and is known for it's handmade quilts.  That's one of the main reasons I wanted to stop, was to go to the quilt museum.  Also stopped at the cheese factory.  They are one of the 11 cheese factories that makes cheese for Kraft.  It was the first time I ever ate curds.  They are really big here in IA.  People were coming into the store, at the factory and buying them by the bags.  I have no idea why!  They feel funny in your mouth and they squeak when you chew them along with having no taste whatsoever. 

Tonight we are in Oxford, IA. It took us twice as long to get here because of the very high winds.  I think at times today we were driving sideways. 

Thursday morning and all is well.  No storms came through. Moving right along until it was time to put the TV antenna down that sits on the outside of the roof.  As Bob was winding it down, from the inside, the handle broke off.  Fortunately his walking stick was long enough to reach up to the roof and whack it down manually.

Wednesday morning 4 a.m. I got up to find no hot water and trailer freezing cold!  Told Bob, I think we are out of propane.  No, no he said, as he turned the heat on and came back to bed. By 6 a.m. it was still cool and he decided we must be out of propane. Now why didn't I think of that says me!  MEN!       Arrived in Knoxville, IL around 5:30 to possible bad weather that night.  We were also able to fill our propane tank.  

Tuesday morning we rushed to get up when we saw 7:20 on the clock.  OOPS, forgot to turn the clock back as we picked up an hour. It rained hard off and on all day.  Arrived in Effingham, IL around 5:30 p.m.  I'm experiencing some withdraw symptoms as I miss being at quilting tonight with the ladies.  I miss you ALL!!

Got up that morning to a cold trailer.  Bob got up first & turned the coffee on and started up the heater.  In no time, it was toasty warm.  All went well for leaving as we didn't unhitch .  Left campground around 9:30 a.m and arrived in Nashville, TN at 3:30 p.m.  Spent the afternoon and evening with Bobby and his family.  They took us to the Rainforrest Cafe for dinner.  WOW, what a neat place!

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Were you wondering what happened to us?  We left on schedule, Sunday 5/14 at 8:18 a.m. anxious to get on the road and arrive in Newport, TN at a half decent time.  As it turned out we never left until 9:30 a.m. because, the ties holding our brake controller in place, kept breaking.  Finally, figured that problem out and off we went.

It was a beautiful day to travel and we enjoyed seeing the wild flowers, like the red Poppies & Blackeyed Susan's along the highway.  I drove the mountain areas and Bob took over and drove the curvy part into TN.  Arrived in Newport without anymore problems. 

Sometime before retiring that night, Bob turned on the bathroom fan, but for some reason or another, couldn't get it to work.  Soooo, off to bed at 10 p.m. for a good nights sleep!  Around 10:30 p.m. we both woke up to this awful racket.  I yelled to turn off the alarm clock and that was the first thing he reached for also, but the noise just kept on going.  Yep, you probably guessed it!  That old fan decided to come on and with the overhead dome window closed, it made a terrible loud noise.  Well, at least we now know the fan works! 

Pictures will eventually show up as soon as we get to our daughters house and my son-in-law shows me how to put them on.  Hang in there with me! 

As of today, the battery is holding a charge and the leak seems to be fixed.  We took the trailer over to Mineral Springs to be weighed on Wednesday and found that we were a little heavy on the tongue.  Hmmm, that sounds like we could make a good Chinese proverb out of that like, “that which has heavy tongue will lose control”.  OK, enough of that.  After 5 months of planning, finally, tomorrow is the big day!! We are pulling out and heading west for our first layover in Newport, TN.  Then onto Nashville where we will meet up with our son and his family. 

Have you noticed some changes in the site over the past day or two?  That’s due to the great job my son-in-law Chris, has done with putting this together for me. Thanks Chris! 

As of lastnight, we changed our leaving date, so now we only have 9 days before we take off.  Yes, I think I’m getting a little more excited, but I’m also feeling somewhat overwhelmed with all that still needs to be done. 

So far the charge is holding on the battery.  One more thing fixed that we can cross off the list.  Now, it’s raining here in Waxhaw so tomorrow morning we will need to check the leak that we thought we had fixed.

I just finished cleaning and stocking the trailer today. Only 11 more days before we pull out heading northwest. Everything was basically running on schedule until we ran into a glich yesterday with the new battery we put on the travel trailer. We went to turn on some lights inside the tt (travel trailer) and nothing happened. How could we have a dead battery after only 5 weeks? After a lot of research and chatting with other RVer’s on a chat forum we seem to have solved the problem. Bob put it on a charger and it’s up and running again. Can you tell, we are new at this RVing? Oh well, what better way to learn, than by your mistakes.