Howdy Vern!!

I love how the Lord brings people together!

While we lived in Bonham, Texas a few years ago, I was summoned for jury duty.  While standing in the hallway, leaning against a wall, waiting to enter the court room, I began chatting with a woman next to me.  We share the same name and we connected immediately then we discovered that we both love the Lord!! Then, the really miraculous happened.... the court dismissed all of us!

We called our husbands to come and pick us up and we went out to lunch together.  We have been friends ever since.

Over the past years, we have visited Kathy and her husband Vern when we were in Texas and we have chatted on Facebook and kept in touch.  Yesterday afternoon, they pulled into our RV Park and spent the night just to visit with us.  How special is that?!!

They have been RVing for years and they just picked up this Class A Motorhome that is very nice.

Kathy and Vern with their dogs.

Toto

Buckshot

We so enjoyed visiting with them.  They drove on today to their summer home in Michigan.  We hope to visit them in July in Cadallac.

They are avid Kayakers and Vern even has his kayak rigged for fishing.

So wonderful to see them and so hard to watch as they drove away today.  I love these relationships that are eternal.

We so miss the other folks from Bonham.  We were thinking of them during our visit.

Safe travels Vern and Kathy!!

Blessings,

Kathy

Back Home Again in Indiana

I haven't blogged much or taken many pictures since being here in our hometown area of Crown Point.  We have just been spending time with family and friends, enjoying the fellowship at the local churches and even doing a little fishing.

The weather has been a bit damp.... that's an understatement!  It has rained and been overcast since we hit the state and then yesterday we began to make a turn into spring and by tomorrow, summer will have arrived with some 80 degree weather in the forecast.

I have posted some of our activities since being here on Facebook. But, I know some that follow the blog, don't see those posts.  We had a very wonderful dinner out with our Todd, Jeff and Rachel at The Lighthouse.  We had a window seat overlooking the lake and watched a really nasty storm roll past.  The weather didn't deter us from enjoying the good food.
This is our second son, Jeff and his wife, Rachel.

We have had the joy of visiting with and eating with several of our old friends and family members.  I'm usually too busy eating and talking to remember to take pictures.  I did get one of our old fishing buddies Jim and Marie.

I had a wonderful coffee/lunch with three of my best buddies, but didn't take one photo.  What can I say?  Talking.  Girl talk. Friend talk.  Fun talk. No pictures, though. 

We have visited a couple of church fellowships that we have known over the years and so enjoyed seeing everyone!!!!!

Todd went to California this week to visit his daughter, Haley, who will be moving out to Indiana later this summer.  Craig has been helping Jeff with some work.  Jeff works as a Facilities Manager for a local church with three campuses and he also continues to take on some side projects.  Today we both helped with hanging some drywall.  We are always glad to help out when we can.

Jeff and Craig putting up drywall.

 Tomorrow is lunch out with Joan and Gail and Craig and then watching Kara at her school choral performance.
Sorry that I haven't posted much, but hopefully you will be caught up with us and we would love to hear from you, see you or talk to you whenever you get the chance.

Blessings,
Kathy

Cedar Lake Ministries RV Park in Indiana

Craig worked with Jeff today and I tried to catch up around the RV.  I took a few pictures of the RV Park and a little peak at the lake from the end of the campground.

Todd also came by and we had a nice lunch out on the picnic table.

There is a huge sport field next to us, but not too many people have been out there.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Kathy

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

No dogs barking or bees stinging, but fun with friends and family.

It was hard to say good-bye to Ron and Carolyn.  He is going to be recovering from his torn groin muscle for a few weeks. Please pray for Ron and Carolyn as they get through this time of recovering.

Coffee in North Salem and good-byes in the morning and fishing with Jeff yesterday evening.

We also got out for a little more fishing tonight.

 Jeff and Craig

We caught a few bass and crappie and then headed back to Jeff's to give the blankets mom made to her two grand daughters.

Kara and Kristen

It poured rain all night last night and half of today and we also have a train that goes by a couple of times a night. So, we are ready to get a good nights sleep tonight.

Blessings,

Kathy

Meet the Taylors

We left the campground near Topeka, Kansas on May 1st and drove around Kansas City, MO.

Kansas City, Missouri

The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers converge in St Louis Missouri.

We came into Illinois and stayed in Mulberry Grove and realized we were close to my HS friend Betty and we were able to drive down and have some pizza with her and her grandson.

We drove into our home state (Craig and I were both born here) and wound around down some country roads to Ron and Carolyn Taylor's Home.

We pulled into the parking place of the friends we met while RVing in Canyon Lake, AZ.  I can thank my cousin, Jan, for the lead on that place that brought about this new friendship.

We are so enjoying our time with them and their family. They own many acres of gorgeous farmland in North Salem, IN.

Carolyn sold log homes at one time and they had this place built for themselves.

Their daughter, Tracy and her family built and live in this lovely open home with a pond that Ron built with his big equipment.

 The pond is right out their door off a deck.

The Walnut Creek runs through their property making for a great picnic and swimming place for their family.

 The river is spring fed and runs year around.

They told us that this spring water is about as pure as it gets.  We drank right from this spout and it was good!!!!  Carolyn told us this water has been running like this for at least 50 years that they knew of.

They just built this new pole barn.  It's huge.  Ron, at 72, has decided he wants to have horses and he also has many pieces of equipment that will fill this place up.

Their grand kids raise pigs for 4-H.  They had a heat light on them and you could nearly smell the bacon!

We are parked on a piece of property where Ron has his escavating equipment.  There are 30 acres here and since Ron pulled a muscle and is confined to his house for a few days, Craig got to get out the zero radius mower and cut all of the grass here.  He was a very happy camper.

Craig is the little dot just to the right of the driveway.

Craig mowing the back 30.

This is the pond on this part of their property.

This log cabin was rebuilt from the logs used in Ron's Aunt and Uncle's home.

Carolyn sold log homes for awhile so they would be able to get a better price on their home.  It sits across the road from the offices.
We have helped with a few small jobs and projects since we have been here, but we have also just been able to sit and enjoy their company.

Ron, Craig and Carolyn.
I hope to get more pictures today. 

Blessings,
Kathy

Whale from CO toward IN

 Our time in Colorado for this visit came to an end on Wed morning, April 30, 2014.  We knew the wind would be a factor and we saw the damage of the 60 mph gusts from April 29th.  We saw two overturned Semi Trucks and one 5th Wheel RV.  Our rig is pretty solid, especially with the Honda in tow, but we still had to wrestle the Whale to keep it swimming east with the strong north wind.  So, we stopped after only 133 miles and spent the rest of the day and night in Seibert, CO.  It was nice and we got rested up and headed out again at 6 am Thursday morning.  We work up to a sunny and less windy day.

Good-bye Colorado and Hello to Kansas.  Eastern Colorado and western Kansas look very much alike.  It's flat planes with wonderful farmlands.  Some fields were green and we could see farmers out trying to disk and plow, but the wind was making it very hard on them.
We did one of our longest driving days, so far, in the Whale with a total of a whopping 430 miles.  We drove in 15-25 mph winds that would gust up to 40.  As I70 turned more SE than E, it also helped with the wind pushing us along instead of broad siding us like yesterday.
Deciding on a place to stay is one of the more difficult parts of the RV life.  We have APPS and books and even our GPS has a list of RV Parks/Walmart and Rest Stops along the way.  We thought we could make up more of our time today and get around Topeka and Kansas City, but we were both getting tired and decided to pull into this "out of the way" Park called, Hilltop just north of Topeka, KS.
An older woman runs the place and has all sorts of wild birds that use her lagoon and she feeds them.  There are several RVes that look like they are permanent of the other side of the Office/House, but we are parked all alone on the opposite side.  We got off the main road and went a mile down this road with the old bridge.

We are still 650 miles away from friends we made while in AZ.  They live in North Salem, Indiana and we are looking forward to seeing them!