Christmas in Illinois

We spent a fairly quiet Christmas Eve with the Wang family.  Tommy's parents, Sue and Eugene and his sister Yvonne (in from California) came over in the afternoon.  Eugene is a great cook, having owned and operated a Chinese restaurant for many years.  He cooked us a feast for dinner.  And of course there were lots of presents for Jonas to open up.

Jonas giving lots of hugs to Grandma Sue (nainai).

And of course more hugs for Aunt Yvonne.

And a big smile for Grandpa Eugene (yeye).

There is nothing better than waking up on Christmas morning and being able to watch a very, very excited child open presents.  Around 7 a.m. Jonas was awake and calling to his mother, "Mommy I'm awake."  We quickly got up and dressed and were waiting by the Christmas tree.  Some how this little guy had so much patience, because mom didn't hear him and didn't get up until 8 a.m.  But once up, wow, it was like a whirlwind!!  The joy and excitement was so refreshing to see.

Jonas must have been a very good boy since there were so many presents under the tree.

We then made our way to Homewood to have Christmas with the Gold family. The first Wang family picture with the newest member of the family. (Tommy, Jonas, Julie and Tia)

Jen was able to drive back from South Dakota to spend the holidays with Zack.

Of course everyone had to have a chance at holding the baby.

We also were able to see Doug (Cyndy's husband) and Fred's sister Patricia, both in from California.

 Fred's sisters did a great job making a wonderful meal.  Gayle is taking a break to get her time holding Tia.

 And we were also able to see Fred's stepson Brian, his wife Chris and our oldest grandson Freddie.

The family is past the Christmas gift exchange amongst each other, but we have a good time with a $15 grab bag exchange.  However, somehow we both ended up with wine stuff; wine glass charms, and an electric cork remover.

Fred senior got to play Santa's Elf!!  Never a dull moment at their house.

Our last stop for the night was a visit at Jen's future in laws, Jeff and Margo Witkowsky.  It had been over a year since we had seen them so it was a nice visit.  I was also extra happy to see Zack's dog Wrecker and Jen's Cora Belle!!!

The Wang's

One of the reasons that we went back to Illinois this winter was so we could help our daughter and son in law Julie and Tommy Wang after the birth of their second child.  Of course Tia was due on December 15th, so we arrived on the 12th.  Typical of babies she arrived on the 8th!!! 

We had a great time entertaining our almost 3 year old grandson Jonas, but oh my what energy...


There were lots of people coming over to visit the new baby including Cyndy (Fred's sister) and Fred's mom and dad.

Fred had a list of handyman projects to do and I helped with a bit of laundry and cleaning.  I was also asked to resume  the roll of Christmas baker, so with my little "helper" Jonas, we made several batches of Christmas cookies.

Visits with the Knapp's

We had a wonderful visit with the Knapp's while we were back in Chicago for the Christmas holiday.  The time does go by so fast.

We were able to visit with them twice while we were there.  We had a wonderful dinner on December 15th, with Andy, Kristina, Spencer and Samantha.  Also there were Andy's parents, Sue and Marty and his sister Kate, her husband Brandon and their two children Emily and Troy.

The kids had fun dressing Spencer in a silly costume.  What a good sport he was!

We are so blest that we are all included in their family.

I found out on this visit that Sue is a very talented artist!!  Below is a portrait that she did of Samantha based on her school picture.

I wish I could figure out how to put the photo next to it so you could see how exact it is.

We were also able to get together with them the week (December 23rd) when Jen was in town to celebrate Christmas with them.

Samantha and Spencer showing us where they put the new Christmas ornaments that we gave them from South Dakota.

Spencer is going to be a paleontologist. He's trying to dig out the fossil bones in the rock...

It's so nice to spend time with the grandkids.

 

Every year they make the most wonderful DVD with pictures and videos set to music.  It's a great way for us to see what the children have been involved in and to see how much they have grown.

NEW BABY!!!!

We are so excited to announce the birth of our newest granddaughter!!!

Tia Jade Wang

Born: December 8, 2011

at 4:22p.m.

6 pounds 2 ounces

19 inches long

Proud parents are Julie Gold Wang and Tommy Wang

Big brother is Jonas

Training

We are in our second week of training to be "Park Rangers" here at Everglades National Park.  We've had lectures on the history of the Park: It was established in 1947 as the first national park dedicated to preserving it based on it's ecological impact in the area.  Originally the everglades comprised 2.5 million acres of land starting by Orlando and the Kissimmee River basin south, which flowed into Lake Okeechobee which over flowed into the everglades.  However, with man's infinite wisdom, in the late 1800's and even today, he has drained, diked and altered much of this area for development and farmland and now the everglades is only 1.5 million acres.

So we learned all about the hydrology and how the government promised to restore and repair the everglades, but of course, it's much more concerned with the people on the east and west coast having fresh water (which they waste) then allocating it back to the everglades, so the eco system is still in peril.

We learned about the birds that are here, over 350 varieties. So here are a few that we have seen:

Wood Storks

Great Egret

Check out the blue eyes!!

Anhingas

Purple Gallinule

Great Blue Heron

And of course an Alligator!!!

and we are learning how we are suppose to give our interpretive tours.  It looks like Fred and I will be giving tours of the Nike Missile Site which was in the park, as while as nature tours on the Anhinga Trail.  I will also be doing a "Coffee with a Ranger" either on Friday or Sunday mornings.  So we have read more nonfiction books about birds, the everglades and the Cuban Missile Crisis in the past month then we've read in years.

As part of our training, we have also been able to explore some other areas of the park.  We went on a boat trip into the Gulf of Mexico and got to see the mangrove trees, the pelikans and some beautiful roseatte spoonbills. (Pictures to follow when we get some good ones.) We did a five mile canoe trip into the everglades, which was suppose to be from 3 - 5, however, it was almost 4 when we got out on the water and a 1/2 hour after sunset when we got back to shore.  It was erie being out on the water after dark.  We also did a five mile bike hike in the pouring rain.  This is definately one tour neither one of us wants to give!!!

We are looking forward to finding out our schedules and planning our tours.

Our New Assignment

We have arrived at our next assignment, Everglades National Park.  It is only 160 miles from my parents in Fort Myers Florida, so we hope a good place to spend the winter.

We traveled 'Alligator Alley' also known as I-75 from Fort Myers to the Florida Turnpike to Dixie Highway, (Side note: We lived just a few blocks from Dixie Highway in Homewood and my office was also on Dixie Highway.  Somethings you just can't get away from!!) to Everglades National Park.

We arrived late afternoon on November 16th, so our supervisor Ryan, showed us to our site in the housing area.  The sites are nice and big, and eventually will house 11 other camper volunteers.  We do have to becareful of our surroundings as there are diamondback rattlesnakes in the area.  Luckily so far we've only seen one on the main road.  We have a very nice FREE laundry right across the road from us, so that's really nice and convenienent.  Ryan had the next three days off, so we were on our own to explore the park and the town of Homestead.

The weather is still warmer and wetter than usual, so the sightings of wildlife are not as pronouced as it will be later into the dry season.  We have seen alligators and lots of birds, anhingas, egrets, herons and lots and lots of vultures (both black and turkey).  I will start posting pictures of them soon.

Sunday we started with our orientation and paperwork.  Being a government entity there is a lot of paperwork.  We hope that by tomorrow, it will be done and we can really start to work.  Fred's main responsibility will be developing his own tour of the Nike Missile Site here in the park.  In addition, he is interested in giving some nature tours.  I will be splitting my time between the main visitiors center and giving nature tours.  We will also be developing our own tours.  We have found out that Interpretive Tours are different than just tours.  Not sure yet how they are different, but we will learn all about it next week during our training sessions.

So far there are only three other couples in the campground and they all are really nice.  We hope that as the weather cools down and the mosquitos disappear, we will be able to spend more of our free time getting to know them.

So in closing:  To all of our family and friends near and far, we wish you a very, Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!!!

Family and Food

We had a nice visit with my parents in Fort Meyers.  It was so nice to see my dad after his health scare the week before.  There's nothing quite like being able to see him in person, and give him a hug to reassure yourself (and the rest of your siblings up north) that he looks and feels good.  Thanks for all your prayers.

So what did we do in Fort Myers???  We ate, and ate and ate.  I felt like a little kid again eating my mom's good cooking.  The only difference is that now we start out each meal with a cocktail!!!! Then there was breaded tilapia, beef stew, and best of all pork cutlets.   MMMMM Good.

We were also surprised to find our favorite pizza joint from Homewood IL has a restaurant in Fort Myers.  So once again we had Aurelio's pizza. 

During the day, we did projects around the rv or just hanging out with mom and dad.

We also are bringing my parents into the 21st century.  Out with their old 'webtv' internet and hopefully by Thanksgiving hooked up with a new laptop computer and wifi!!!

Fall Again and Again and Again

Fred and I were just commenting the other day on how lucky we are to be able to experience fall weather over and over again.

We were in Spearfish South Dakota in September when the colors in the canyon were changing.

We were at the pumpkin farm in Illinois with our grandson Jonas in October.

And then in November we were able to see the colors changing in Alabama.

We took a day off from our travels and visited the Vicksburg Mississippi National Military Park.  This was a pivotal battle during the Civil War.  General Grant's army lay siege to the town of Vicksburg which had a very important port on the Mississippi River.  After surrounding the town for 47 days, the Confederate Army surrendered and the North controlled the river.  This allowed Sherman to gather the necessary supplies for his march across the south to Atlanta.

In the park, there are numerous monuments dedicated to the armies from the states which participated in the campaign.  The majority of the soldiers were from Illinois, therefore, one of the most elaborate monuments was sponsored by the state of Illinois.

This was one of the monuments dedicated to the Southern States.

And of course, no trip to a National Park is complete without a picture of Fred!

We had a bit of unwanted excitement this week.  An almost flat tire...

During our travels we have developed several  routines.  One of those, is that whenever we stop, either Fred or I do a walk around the truck and RV to make sure that everything looks in order (tires, slideouts, stairs, bikes..). We had stopped for lunch around 12:30 and all was well.  At around 2:30 it was time for the afternoon potty break.  We stopped at the rest area in Port Charlotte Florida.  I exited the rv quickly (if you know what I mean!!) and Fred did the walk around.  When I got back to the RV he was on the phone with OnStar.  The back tire on the passenger side of the RV had worn down to the cord!!  Luckily with our Good Sam emergency road service, we had the tire changed within the hour.  We were also able to call Camping World in Fort Myers and order a new tire.  We've dropped off the old tire and on Wednesday when we leave town, we will stop by and pick up our new mounted tire.

Thank goodness for your routines and our guardian angel.  This could have had a disastrous ending, but thankfully it was only a minor delay.  So to all of our RV friends out there,  Please walk around and inspect your RV everytime you stop.

We are now at the Fort Myers Beach RV Resort for a week.  This is a good place to stay while we are visiting my parents.  It's sooo wonderful to be able to spend some time with them.

On the Move

We finished our visit back "home".  It was a bit odd to be staying at Fred's parents house which is just a half block from our former residence of 18 years.  I guess it was good that neither Fred nor I had any real desire or yearning for the old house.  We were both a bit curious as to the changes that they made to the backyard, but in all the time in Homewood, we never mistakely pulled into the driveway!!!  It solidifies the fact, that we made the right decision about full timimg.

We were really glad to be able to get back there and spend time with family and friends. It was also a good time to check in with our doctors for routine checkups.  Thankfully, overall we are healthy.  I was able to spend a girl's night out with my dear friend Alyson, who I worked with, and helped her celebrate her birthday.  We were able to spend a week with Fred's sisters Cyndy and Gayle who came in for Esther's 93rd  birthday.  We spent time  with our grandkids, Samantha and Spencer and Jonas, it's great to see them so happy.  They do grow up so fast. (I can't believe that Samantha was able to read to me two complete books!!)  And the last night there, we spent the evening with my best friend from college, Jan and her husband Bill. 

But now it's back on the move and going down the road.  We are heading for Florida via Kansas.  After Fred's accident last January, we started thinking about our new life style on the road.  We live in our house and if anything should happen to it, we'd be homeless...  So we are being proactive and have started to look for our next RV.  It took us almost two years to decide to buy the Titanium, so we are starting to do our homework now.  When we were looking last time, we were also interested in the Hitchhiker Discover America RV by NuWa.  They are made in Chanute Kansas so we left the Chicago area and headed southwest.

We left Chicago on Sunday October 31st.  We stopped in Bloomington and had lunch with our friends Joe & Vicky Harbison who we met on our Alaska caravan in 2003. (This is the best part of rving, meeting people who become life long friends.) They will be down in Florida this winter so I'm sure we will see them again soon.  We stayed at a cute campground in Edwardsville IL called Red Barn Rendevous.  We had stayed here back in 2006. Monday, it was on to and through Missouri to Kansas City.  We arrived in Chanute Tuesday early afternoon, but they only give tours once a day at 9:45.  So we settled into our campsite and enjoyed our first meal ever at Sonic!! Chanute has a great little city campground. No frills, just water, electric and a dump station, but the price is right.  The first two days our free, then it's $10 per night.

We toured the NuWa plant on Wednesday and we were very impressed with their product.  The only draw back is that most of their rv's our preordered by people so it takes 10 -12 weeks to get one.  We planed on leaving on Thursday, but heavy rain and wind kept us in place for one more day.  So instead we did laundry and went to the movies.  Footloose...  good movie, but I still like the original version best!

Friday was a perfect day for traveling.  Sunny skies, mild temperature and beautiful fall colors.  I have been doing most of the driving this trip and I never realized how hilly western Arkansas is.  I'm sure I would have enjoyed the scenery more, if I didn't have to pay such close attention to the road.  Now I know how Fred feels most of the time.  I just hope that with my driving he was able to relax and enjoy the view!!!  (I only heard him gasp a few times!!)  And the view was spectacular, I wish I would have been able to pull off and take some pictures.  The colors were amazing. We stayed at Ivy's Cove RV Retreat.  They had the absolute best bathrooms that I have ever seen in a campground.

In six days we have driven through six states, (IL, MO, KS, OK, LS, AR. MS). Today we arrived in Vicksburg, Mississippi (I couldn't resist spelling that out). The drive from Russellville AR to here was not very exciting.  Lots of plowed cotton and tobacco fields.  We haven't seen a lot of wildlife on this trip, surprisingly the most common thing that we are seeing are hawks. Today alone, we saw at least 50 of them.  Fred said he saw some armadillos, though I never saw them... We will be touring some Civil War sites in the morning.

Home Sweet Homewood!!

It's been an interesting two weeks "back home".   We were able to stay with our oldest daughter Julie and her family in Chicago (Though trying to find parallel parking in a Chicago neighborhood is a challenge!!).  We went to the Pumpkin Farm in South Barrington with Julie and Jonas.

I got to help with the pony ride.

 It is much more fun to see something like this through the eyes of an almost three year old.  What a great place, pumpkin farms have changed alot since Fred and I were kids.  Besides the pumpkins, there was an animal land that would put some zoos to shame.

  We were able to feed the giraffes.  My they have long tongues...

A pumpkin eating dinosaur. (No joke), a corn maze, which was harder than I expected, camel rides and pony rides.  We had a blast!!!

We even got to see Jonas play socceer.











We were able to surprise our other set of grandkids, Spencer and Samatha with a quick visit one day.

On Sunday we were able to see Samantha play socceer and visit with our older grandson Spencer, Andy and Kristina and Andy's parents, Sue and Marty.

 Watch out, this girl can run.  She scored 2 of the 4 goals that day and still had so much energy afterwards.  Oh too be young again.








Our daughter Julie is expecting their second child in December, so Papa Fred and Gigi helped set up Jonas' new big boy bed.  The big truck was helpful in transporting all 15 of the boxes that made up his loft bedroom set.  Thank goodness Fred is so handy, as it only took a 1/2 day to put it all together.  Jonas has slept in it every night since then.

We also had fun craving a pumpkin.

After a week in Chicago, we are now staying at Fred's parents in Homewood.  A half block from our "old house".  It was nice to see the old neighborhood, and the changes to the old house, but we are SO glad we don't have the responsibility of a brick and stick any more. We have enjoyed visiting with former neighbors and friends.  It's also been nice to eat some good pizza!!!

We've seen all of our doctors and for the most part have gotten clean bills of health.  One small snafu though, Fred badly sprained his ankle while taking his treadmill test.  The heart is fine, but the ankle will take awhile to be back to normal.  In the mean time, I think Fred likes being chaufered around by me. 

We celebrated Fred's mother's 93rd birthday this past week.  It was so nice to be able to have his sister's Cyndy and Gayle here at the same time as us..  We have so much fun and laughs with them!!!

We have a few more days to spend in Illinois, catching up with old friends and eating at all of our favorite places.

On the Road Again

We have finished our assignment in South Dakota and our now heading back to Illinois (In the past I would have said heading home...can't say that any more!!!)  We left Spearfish on Monday October 3rd.  We left the RV in Rapid City for some minor repairs. (To fix a problem from Fred's accident in January and some other minor things).  We were able to spend several days in the Midland-Milesville SD area with our daughter Jen.  It was so good to see her and to see how excited she is about her job as a Vet Tech with Golden Vet Services.  We only had a small honey do list to help her out and help her prepare for her first winter in South Dakota.  We were invited to her landlord's Rick & Marlis Doud for dinner one night.  We were able to have some home grown South Dakota beef from their ranch!!!

We finally picked up the RV on Thursday afternoon, and of course there was a problem....  The work they did on the front of the RV looks great..however, when we hooked up we realized that the marker lights on top did not work.  After an hour of troubleshooting, they determined that they would have to pull the whole front cap off the RV to see where the problem was, at a cost of $95/hour and at least 6 to 7 hours of work.  We decided that it wasn't worth it and we just won't drive at night!!!

Our plans to leave on Friday were delayed due to high winds (sustained winds of 25 gusts to 60mph!!) So we spent an extra day in Rapid City. We finally got on the road on Saturday, Oct 8th.  We travelled uneventfully to Sioux Falls, SD where we had a nice dinner with our friends Tom & Shelly Wray. On Sunday we travelled through Minnesota and Wisconsin and saw some beautiful fall colors.  We spent the night just south of Tomah WI. Monday we again realized why we like the west... no traffic... As soon as we got near to Madison WI we started seeing alot more vehicles. Thankfully, there wasn't much construction.  Fred was finally able to get his bbq fix in Janesville, WI where we stopped for lunch at Famous Dave's!!!  We arrived at our campground (Pine Country, Outdoor World) in Belvidere on Monday afternoon.  We set up camp and spent a quite evening before heading into Chicago to see the families.

Newest Adventure

Since we've been traveling over the years, I have always kept a log of our adventures.  Several of you have asked me about keeping a blog....So here goes...

As most of you know, we love to travel and in 2009 we completed a personal quest of having visited all 50 states (actually Kathleen achieved this in 2003).  In 2010 we decided to try out almost full time RVing and spent 8 months on the road.  In May of 2011 we sold the house in Homewood Illinois and have made that dream a reality.  We are officially homeless and on the road!!!!

We have been able to establish residency in South Dakota (no state taxes, lower insurance rates and lower license plate fees). We now have a permanent address with a mail forwarding service in Box Elder, SD.  We have new driver's licenses. (This was strange for Fred, because he always only had an Illinois license.) And in a few weeks we will have South Dakota plates on the truck and RV.

This past summer we have again returned to Spearfish South Dakota and are campground hosts at the prettiest campground in the Black Hills - Spearfish City Campground.  Fred is one of three guys who take care of all the grounds keeping and maintenance, while I am one of three gals who work in the office. 

Here are some pictures of the things we saw, places we went and good times that we had the past two summers in and around Spearfish South Dakota.

Our campsite at Spearfish City Campground, Spearfish South Dakota

Deer across the creek behind our RV

Deer along the walking path in Spearfish

Our daughter Jen and Fred at Mount Rushmore.  She fell in love with South Dakota on this visit and now lives in Midland where she is a vet tech for a large animal clinic.

Crazy Horse Memorial

Sunset in the Black Hills

French Creek in Custer State Park

Bear Country

Teddy Roosevelt National Park North Dakota

Teddy Roosevelt National Park North Dakota

Old homestead in Wyoming

Weird formations in a cave

Creekside in Spearfish Canyon

Sunset at Pactola Reservoir

Bridal Veil Falls in Spearfish Canyon

                                          Rowdy bison in Custer State Park

Wild horses at the Wild Horse Sanctuary in Hot Springs, South Dakota

Fred's sister Cyndy (my college roommate) and her husband Doug at...

Snowball fight in July at Yellowstone National Park

Wildflowers and snow in Yellowstone National Park in July

Bison in Yellowstone National Park

Tents at Spearfish City campground during the Motorcycle rally

Time for a new RV???  Can't believe they let this on the road!!

Our favorite co-workers at Spearfish City Campground 2011

Fall in Spearfish Canyon

Fall in Spearfish Canyon

Fall in Spearfish Canyon

 

Fall on the bike path by the Campground

Fall in Spearfish Canyon

Fall in Spearfish Canyon