Villa ridge, Mo (further west)

This morning we left Woodstock and headed southwest into Missouri. After 370 miles of interstate (boring) driving we stopped at a campground in Villa Ridge, MO. While driving thru Illinois there are lots and lots of cornfields and soy beans. There is an old saying “knee high by the 4th of July” today with the hybrid corns and fertilizers it is more like “waist high by the 4th of July”. When you go over an overpass,which is about the highest thing around, al you can see is green, green, green, corn and soybean fields.

We are convoying with two 5th wheels and Lorie driving the van with the speed boat attached. It was kind of hairy going thru St. Louis but other than than, an uneventful trip…..which is the way we like it….no accidents or other problems.

Tomorrow on to Branson West to our resort/campground where we will stay for a week or so.

I did a search for “zip lines” and found a really great one in the Branson area. Hope we can do it, altho it looks like only Linda and I  if we do.

Jim and Bobbie we are “further west” now and only about 800 or so miles from you.

Have a great day, tomorrow

we will be driving again, but only about 200 miles tomorrow .

Love to all of you

Jim and LInda

Last meal at Portillo's

Yesterday we went to Portillo/Barnelli for the last time till next year. Linda had her favorite "chopped salad" and I had my favorite "chili cheese dogs with onions, large fry and large schooner of beer. It will have to last us a long time.
Lorie, Jamie and Jordan were with us and it was Jordan's first chili cheese dog. He loved it.
This Portillo's is decorated in a prohibition ere motif with lots of whiskey barrels, guns, gun mols, whiskey stills and posters and pictures from the era. There are several Portillo's in the greater Chicago area and we all love their food.
Tomorrow morning we start heading west. Will get on the west side of Saint Louis, and Friday to our destination in Branson West, MO.
Have a great day
see ya
Jim and Linda

Working frenzy

This past week has been really busy. Jeff, Lorie, Linda and I have been working on their new trailer getting things put away, making modifications for more storage, and organizing stuff.
Jeff took the air shocks off of the upper beds and moved them to the lower beds with hinges at the back to access all of the storage below. There is a small door on each bunk to access the storage but very limited. Jeff also made 2 ladders to get to the upper bunks without the boys acting like monkeys to get up there. Along with many other things, like adding a switch inside for the electric water heater, and making two of the clearance lights turn signals, and more.
I make 3 new shelves with fascia trim for the boys room, added dividers to several drawers, along with making two new drawers...one under the sink and a remake of one under the stove. The one under the stove was only 17 inches deep, and the wall is 23 inches back. The new drawer is 22 inches deep.
Linda and Lorie have been busy figuring out where things are going and buying storage drawers and boxes. They have made several trips to the stores along with lots of shopping on line for certain items.
Tomorrow we are off to "Old World Wisconsin" for the weekend. Than only two weeks before our family vacation in the Branson, MO area on Table Rock Lake

See you in about a month Jim and Bobbie!!!!

love to all
Jim and Linda

Heading West, slowly

Friday we left my brothers house in South Bend, IN. and moved about 100 miles west to Hollywood casino in Joliet, IL. where we met up with old friends Leroy and Rose. Our son and his family met us there later in the evening and also spent the weekend in their brand new Cedar Creek 41 foot bunkhouse 5th wheel trailer.
They bought a new one as the boys are getting bigger and would like to invite friends to stay with them when they go camping for a weekend. The boys room has two slideouts and 4 bunks, along with 2 extra mattresses that can go on the floor. With the slides out, they have an area 8 ft x 6 ft to play in! The trailer also has the new 6 point automatic leveling system on it....this is a great new feature that we would love to have on our trailer, but at $5000 plus we will have to live without it.
We are now at the kids house in the driveway for the week, and this Friday will be heading north to Old World Wisconsin for the weekend. (oldworldwisconsin.wisconsinhistory.org) Sorry blogger would not let me put in link.
The 29th of this month we will head further west as we go to the Branson Missouri area to a resort on Table Rock Lake for a week long family vacation. From there we have two weeks to get to Colorado to stay with dear friends Jim and Bobbie and where Jim will take Linda and I on a off road tour of the mountains for three days along with Jim's two brothers. Looking forward to that trip, altho Jim says I will get butt pucker in some spots.
Have a great week
Love to all of you
Jim and Linda

Another catch up

Hi to all of you dear friends
Tonight is reminiscent of several weeks ago. I should say today. Tornado warnings and watches most of the day. I was packed up with the slides in and the dogs and me and the bail out box in the truck ready to go late this morning. It was very dark and the emergency radio was going off. It did finally settle down, for a while. It is now 11:04pm and we are under another tornado warning and the local tv shows severeweather coming in. I put the slides in again and am sitting here with the tv on the weather channel and waiting.

So, from our last update, Dave and Sharon decided to buy a new 5th wheel on Saturday while we were camping with the club. It is about 4 foot longer that their old one, has full body paint and new to the industry 6 point fully automatic leveling jacks.....wow are they neat....wish we could afford them. We made arrangements to meet them the following weekend at the same campground to go to the dealer with them, along with Jeff and Lorie and the boys to help them move all of their stuff from one rig to the other. Dave was very generous and offered to buy breakfast and dinner for us.
Over the next few weeks while staying at Jeff and Lorie's they decided to buy a new rig, and spent much time on the Internet looking, along with a couple of several hour trips to look at a few rigs in person. I think that they have finally decided on one.....I think.
We moved 165 miles east to my brothers house in South Bend, IN. last Saturday and will be here for a couple of more weeks visiting with family's. Linda's mom went in for gall bladder surgery this morning and at last report is back home sleeping off the drugs. Everything went well. She was very worried about the surgery, but I told Linda this morning to tell her to "man up"......lol Linda spent last night at her apartment and tonight, so the dogs and I are having a guys two nights.
Have work to do at Linda's brother Kelly's house this weekend. They have a large screen porch that all of the screens were very damaged. They tore them all out last year and we will rebuild and replace all 11 of them (approx. 8 ft x 4 ft each) this weekend.
Kelly and Deb's son Brandon is graduating the following weekend from high school and they are having a party for him at the house, so we want it to look good.
The weekend we leave here (June 10th) we are going to meed our friend Rose and Leroy at the old Empress, now Hollywood casino in Joliet, Il for the weekend.....Jeff and Lorie and the boys will also be there. There is a swimming pool in the hotel that the women and boys can go to while the rest of us are at the casino.
That pretty much brings you up to date. Linda is not here to edit this, so I am on my own.
Hope all is well with you.....drop us a line once in a while......
Welllllllll the rain is starting to come down as I am finishing this......hope we survive the night..

love to you all
Jim and Linda
p.s. looks like the photo in the header is still accurate