Welcome Home!

After we left Lake of the Ozarks, we headed just a little west to Nemo, MO to the home of our good friends Kathy and Tim.  Tim also happens to be Dave's cousin.  They have a place in their "compound" for us to hook up to water and electric.  A side note on water.....here and at Lake of the Ozarks our water pressure was very low.  We fill the fresh water tank and then use the water pump for showers, toilet and dishwashing.
We haven't seen them in a year and haven't been to their place in two years.  It was just sooo good to be their again.  That part of Missouri is so pretty and Dave has so many Aunts and Uncles there, it's like being at home.

 Last year Tim and Kathy opened a Flea Market in a large building adjacent to their property.  A to Z Flea Market has become the largest flea market in the area. 

Memorial weekend was very busy for them, so Dave and I helped out.  They are very good at it and Tim's personality brings people back in.  We have taken to calling them the Flea Market King and Queen!  Here they are:

The two weeks that we spent in Missouri, we only had about 3 days of sunshine and most days it rained at least some of the day.  But we did get to go do some driving around.  We went to the Harry S Truman dam in Warsaw Mo.  I guess this was the week for seeing dams!  The Truman dam created Truman Lake.

Memorial Day was sunny and beautiful so Kathy and I drove over to Lebanon, MO to make a visit, shop a little and pick up some groceries for Tim's Aunt Peg.  Kathy and I did a little shopping at the outlet mall..She got some capri's and we both got a new pair of tennis shoes.
When we went back out to the parking lot, we discovered this cool car, so I took a few pics for the guys.

I took her to lunch because the previous Friday was her birthday,  to the restaurant of her choice....we ate at Hardies and then headed over to Walmart to do Aunt Peg's shopping.  While she shopped for groceries, I shopped for other "stuff"....got Dave a couple of t-shirts and some this n that stuff.  I don't know about anyone else, but I never get out of Walmart without some this n that stuff.

Tuesday found us leaving Kathy's and Tim's to head back to Kansas.  We were very excited and looking forward to seeing our Grandkids and  Kids again. Two months seemed soooo long.  We stopped at Cabela's in Kansas City to park and our youngest, Caitie, picked us up so we could have lunch and catch up. 

Even when we were IN Kansas we didn't see enough of her.  She is very busy in KC with her work at the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation.  She loves her job and loves that she is doing something that helps children.
 
After we left Caitlin, we headed on west.  Next stop, Abilene KS.  We are staying in a very nice small RV park on the edge of town - Covered Wagon RV Park.  Not very big, but full utilities, shade and friendly people.  Best of all, our son, Sean and his family are just down the road!

It was great seeing the kids when we got here Tuesday night, but we did NOT enjoy last night at all.  We met them for dinner at Pizza Hut.  When we left there, with the oldest, Destiny in tow....to spend the night with Papa and Nana, we made a side trip to Alco just down the road.....it was just starting to rain.  While we were in Alco Sean called and said it was hailing at his house.  Since we had left the awning out, Dave wanted to get going.  Just as we were leaving the parking lot, the hail started...we turned around and parked under cover at the gas station area along with a few other cars.  As we were watching the golf ball size hail come down the tornado sirens went off....we hurried back over to Alco and went inside to their safe area.  We were there about 15 minutes and I was keeping an eye on the storm with my phone...once we were safe we left and headed for Sean's house...he has a basement...it continued to storm off and on until about 2 am with severe storms all around us and all heading east.  Dave went back to the trailer about midnite and I stayed at Sean and Jennifer's for the night.  Anyone will tell you that I just HATE this part of being back in Kansas!

We have only one little tear in the awning, but need a new outer skylight over the shower.  Also one crack in the cover on the forward AC.  VERY lucky!  Daughter-in-law's car needs a new windshield and has numerous dents.  On our way home this morning we saw lots of cars that need new windows and windshields.

We found out about all the flooding in Manhattan/Ogden area when my oldest daughter, Adrienne, called this morning to say they were flooded out of their office.  She works for the Country Stampede and with only 3 weeks until show time, they are WAY too busy for this!!

Highest we have ever seen the water in Manhattan.  I talked to her this evening and the water had receded this afternoon and thanks to their great crew, some help from Jeff and Belinda, 4 shop vacs, tub lids and a carpet cleaner they got the offices all cleaned up.
Manhattan received more than 4 inches of water last night and just north of their received over EIGHT.
I'm sure there are homes and other offices that are not so lucky today!  Our thoughts go out to all of them!

We will be moving to Tuttle Creek River Pond State Park, just outside of Manhattan, on Sunday.  Closer to visit with Adrienne, Jared and their kids. Then onto Nebraska for Nebraskaland Days on June 13th.

Well, that brings us up to date.  I have decided that I need to blog more often than once a week or so or I forget things that might have been of interest.  Or just plain forget what the heck we've been doing!


SHOUTOUT to Ray and Terry who want to be fulltimers in a few years!  Welcome to the dream!