On the Road

Wow!  After spending a week in Texas with John's brother and sister-in-law, we went to Cincinnati for two weeks.  We got to see our children and grandchildren and spend some time with each of them.  We also had dinner at Dean and Debbie's house along with ten other of our Aurora dock mates.  It was great to see them all.  Especially, to see them all in one place.  Dinner was wonderful and the conversation was equally as good.  When that group gets together, there is never a shortage of conversation.  By the way, our daughter-in-law is feeling much better.  Thank you all for your concern.

After leaving Cincinnati on March 4th, we drove directly to Venice, Florida.  We visited with John's parents there for the better part of a week.  We played bridge, and went to the beach.  One day we went to N. Fort Myers and had a brief visit with Bob and Nancy, and then went to see Paul and Patty and even sang karaoke.  There was no swimming going on though because it was too cold.  However, it was not raining or snowing, so I am not complaining.  On Saturday, March 9th, we met up with Mike and Linda in Sarasota for a week of vacation.  We went to the pool once, read a lot in the sun, drove back to Venice to pick up an item of clothing we had forgotten, went out to lunch with Mom and Dad while we were there, made two visits to West Marine, shopped in St. Armand's Square a few times, had dinner with Claude and Yvette whom we met back in 2010 while doing the loop, and Norm came up to visit us.  From the time we left the boat to go to Texas, we have been having fun and socializing with friends and relatives.  It's been about six weeks, but we are back on the boat in Iuka, MS.  We have a few things to take care of on the boat, but we are hoping to be heading back toward Cincinnati by boat by the end of the week. 

Saturday, February 23, 2012

We spent last week visiting John's brother and sister-in-law in Texas.  We had a wonderful time and felt like they totally spoiled us. We got to see the lake house they built (and it is beautiful) and their condo in Plano.  We played cards in the evenings, visited with our nephew, his wife, and their baby.  We went out to dinner and the girls did some shopping.  There are lots of shopping opportunities in the area.  I found a dress for Easter for a mere $15.  Pretty good, heh?  As for the card games, the girls and the boys won exactly the same number of games at the end of the week. No bragging rights there.   It seemed the time went so fast and it was time to leave and go back to the boat.

On Wednesday, while driving home from Texas, we got  a phone call from our son.  Our daughter-in-law isn't feeling well and we decided to go home to help out.  We went to the boat, slept for a few hours and left again on Wednesday night at 11:30 to go home to Cincinnati. While this isn't the reason we desire to be home, it is necessary.  We do get to see our children and grandchildren.  That's always good.  It was a good thing we left the boat when we did.  If we had waited until the next morning, we would have run into icy roads. We are hoping that our daughter-in-law recovers quickly. 

Wednesday,. January 30, 2013

It's been a couple of weeks since I have written.  There really isn't much to tell.  We were supposed to have visitors from home last weekend, but because of illness, they had to beg off.  We were sad that we didn't have visitors, but we are glad to still be healthy. 

Even though we have our boat up for sale, John keeps on doing projects to her, like replacing the screens.  I can't believe what a difference new screening makes to the outside appearance of the boat.  Some jobs are easier than others.  Some jobs that should be easy, don't turn out that way.  I'm sure you all know what I am talking about. 

We had a couple come look at the boat this past Thursday.  They spent a couple of hours looking very carefully at her.  They are really nice people who would like to do the loop.  This boat, in my opinion, is perfect to do the loop.  She already knows her way around the entire route. :)

I have learned my lesson about telling you what we plan to do in the near future.  So many times, it doesn't work out the way I expect. 

Last night we had some wild weather.  It was 75 degrees during the day. As night took over the day, the temperatures dropped and the wind picked up.  During the night, it sounded like the roof was going to blow off of the dock and we bobbed around in the wind.  The roof did not keep the rain off of the boat because of how hard the wind was blowing.  Tornadoes touched down not far from here, but we faired pretty well except for a lack of sleep. 

So far, so good.  We are looking forward to spring and moving again.  I'll check in again in a week or two.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

I'm still having a hard time remembering to put 2013.  I will get used to it though.

Things have been rather calm around here since returning from Cincinnati at Christmas time.  We have had some volatile weather, however.  First it will be in the upper 60s and lower 70s and then just a day later, we are having freezing temperatures and lots  and lots of rain and even some sleet.  We have avoided the snow (that nasty 4 letter word) so far.  When the weather was warm, John was outside scrubbing the boat.  Suddenly, the brush and handle fell in the water.  The handle was supposed to be one that floats, but it sank like a weighted down dead mobster.  It has since been replaced.

Because of all of the rain we have gotten, the ramp to the dock is just about flat.  It could stay like that as far as I'm concerned.  It certainly makes toting things up and down the dock a lot easier.  We drove over to Pickwick Dam to see how much water they are pushing through the dam.  I took a video and will attempt to put it on the blog.  Our Internet service is pretty slow here, so it may not work.  I will give it a go.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  We were invited to a New Year's party on the dock aboard Tim and Ginger's boat.  We had lots of food, drinks, music and dancing.  I still don't have a voice.  John and I stayed up until 4:00 A.M., which is pretty good for us.  That's probably the first New Year's John has been awake for, in several years.  We are hoping this year will be a great year for you all.

December 22, 2012

We went back to the boat on December 3rd.  When we got back, there were even less people around than there were before Thanksgiving.  We moved the boat to a slip under cover near some other liveaboards and left to come back to Cincy on the December 12th. for the Christmas holidays.  We  got back to Cincy in time to see  our granddaughter Kate's Christmas program.  We have been busy since we got here spending as much time with all our grandkids as we can.  We spent the first week with Gina and Jim, Clara and Lindy and are currently at Cynthia and Jay's with Carolyn, Maria, and Johnathan.  These are some truly lively houses and Carol and I love it.  We are going to spend Christmas morning at Susan, Jeff, and Kate's house and all of us are getting together at Cynthia and Jay's house in the afternoon.  Also had time to visit many of our friends in the last week, both boating and non-boating.  It has been a very busy week.  We plan on heading back to the boat on Dec. 27th.  I am doing one of the few posts I have done because Grandma Carol is too busy being "Grandmotherly."

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

We made the trip home for Thanksgiving and stayed for two weeks.  We spent the first week at Jeff and Susan's house and the second week at Gina and Jim's house.  It seemed that every house had lots of germs, but we escaped unscathed.  It was so nice to be home for Thanksgiving.  After missing three Thanksgivings at home made this one extra special.  There were 44 people (my side of the family) in attendance.  Only four were missing.  There were three expecting mothers, so next year, if everyone is there, we will be fifty-one.  Thank goodness our children have such large houses to accommodate that many.

John had lunch a few times with his friends from Delhi.  I had lunch with the "Boat Ladies".  We had dinner out several times.  It seems we eat a lot while we are home.  It is evident by the number on the scale once we got back to the boat.  We are returning to Cincinnati on the 13th for the Christmas holiday.  Hopefully, we can pare back before then, so we can enjoy all of the eating events. It is a vicious cycle.

Our Rising Sun Christmas party was Saturday night at Hueston Woods.  We stayed overnight in the lodge.  The dinner, dancing, and visiting with this group of boaters was a lot of fun.  When we left there on Sunday (John's BIG 60th birthday), we went to Jay and Cynthia's house for a birthday party with our children, grandchildren, and parents.  All in all, we had a great time and are looking forward to our next trip home.