Ruffles and Flowers Make a Nice Day

This afternoon my hubby went to the grocery to get the ingredients for a crock pot dinner.  I’ve been enjoying the new recipes he’s chosen lately from a slow cooker blog he’s following.    The latest choice to look forward to is Tex Mex Roast.    Sounds yummy.

But, on top of the recipe ingredients he returned with flowers and one of my favorite bad snacks, Ruffles. 

 

He made my day. What a nice guy!

Youth In Our Lives

Over the past week or so we’ve been reminded of how the youngsters in our life stir our imagination and bring us happiness.  

A few days ago after leaving the Elkhart area, we stopped at our good friends’ home in Marion.  Mike and Suzanne alerted their congenial neighbors we were arriving. They were more than willing to have us park along their street, offering whatever they could to accommodate us.  As we pulled in Lauren and Sean, the 9 and 7-year-old  members of the family, came running to greet us. Isn’t it great how those hugs and smiles give you an  injection of the happies?!  

We always enjoy getting up to date with Lauren and Sean’s activities.  Sean acquainted us with his latest wrestler action figures, such as Jake the Snake and Matt Hardy. And there were many other professional-type names that I should remember.  (Sorry Sean.)

Lauren demonstrated her Star Doll website where she can choose from a wide variety of clothes and accessories to design her outfits. Then they went off to socialize with their neighbor friends while we adults found a relaxing spot on the back porch, catching up on the past year.  By the time we saw the kids again they had filthy feet, hands and faces that were hard to explain.  Then we saw why. They had been creating this life-size, chalk artwork covering the complete driveway. Obviously, the artistry involved a considerable amount of crawling around on the “canvas”.  Take a look at these youthful imaginations at work.

    

After our super visit with the Flynn family, we traveled the 100 miles or so south to Indianapolis.  We were glad to be seeing our family again after a long stretch for our trip north to Alaska. As we turned into Tim’s, our home base, the water was filling his new swimming pool. The next two days were unseasonably warm for October, mid 80s, and the heater was cranking. So there were definitely good pool times, especially for the children.  Snorkels, rafts, water basketball and water guns, they all got a workout.

We loved hearing the latest news from everybody and sharing our stories, as we were entertained by the water shenanigans. We were also introduced to  granddaughter Caroline’s boyfriend, Brayton.  (Yes, he is polite and personable, in addition to cute.)  Our girl is becoming a lady, soon to be off to college.  Wow, just yesterday we were watching her and her brother, Ben, spread out construction paper and finger paints to create their own imaginative art projects in our living room. 

Another type of youngster in this mix is my daughter Krissy’s beautiful Emma. She’s been to doggy obedience school recently and is showing great progress.   She waited patiently as we all chowed down on the delicious Green Chili Stew that Krissy brought us for dinner the other evening.  Emma is very loving and energetic and wants to please. She’s glad to have been rescued. 

We’ve been happy to have all this vitality around us. No adults were allowed in this particular message.  It’s all about the youth. Ah, how they keep us young.

Thanks again for visiting Hurley Travels.  Talk to you later.

We are Soooo Cool Again

Thank goodness our refrigerator escapade is over!!  Maybe you remember the ups and downs over the past year or longer.  There were occasions when our refrigerator stopped cooling completely. Then there would be a period of no issues. And again, sometimes when it was a warm day the fridge just couldn’t stay in the safe zone. But with the cooler temps, we squeezed in the three-month Alaska trip without too much difficulty. But who knew when its last day would come. Well, we chose to end this period of insecurity in Shipshewana, Indiana a few days ago.

Thanks to Leon Hershberger at National RV Refrigeration we are cooling away. After a friend’s recommendation and learning that Leon gives a three year warranty on his work, we chose to replace the cooling unit rather than try to fit a new refrigerator into the place where our out-of-production unit was designed to fit.  He replaced our cooling unit, the entire back portion of the refrigerator, without taking the unit out of the motorhome.  We were relieved that it wasn’t necessary to take out one of Ferd’s windows to get the refrigerator outside.  There is no way our double-door refrigerator was coming out the space of our entry door.  To make room to work in our slideless motorhome, Leon disassembled our table from the wall. He brought the fridge out onto the floor to do his work on the spot.  

Here are the before and after shots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three days have passed and we are pleased.  The temperature fell inside in a reasonable period of time and is holding steady.  We have no need to play with the gas and electric switch while crossing our fingers that it would operate.  And we aren’t maneuvering the motorhome so that a minimal amount of sun shines on that side of the rig. 

Yea!!  We are sooo cool.  Thanks for visiting.

Now and Then in Centerville, Iowa

I’ve had a little writer’s block lately, I guess. We’ve moved east from Iowa to Indiana while I simmer the ideas for the blog.  So, it’s time to bring us up to date with a few quick posts. 

About a week ago we were in Iowa, at the Buck Creek COE Campground ….just enjoying the nice surroundings.  Pieces of that scenery were these long-stemmed, bunches of daisy-type wildflowers  waving brightly in the breeze around the park and the roadways into town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of the nearby town, a  funny thing happened one evening on a trip into Centerville.  We had decided to have a late anniversary dinner at the Continental Hotel, a slightly upscale restaurant on the town square. But, the plans changed quickly.  When we arrived that Saturday we found signs on the doors saying they were closed to the public for that one evening due to an alumni gathering. Great timing, huh!  We could see through the windows a smiling group of our own generation getting reacquainted and perusing the menus at their white-clothed tables. Crash the party?  No, not this time.

As we laughed about our good timing and took a walk further around the downtown square, we noticed young people dressed in unusual attire – girls in heels and evening dresses, boys in dress pants and ties.  And there was one more distinctive clue – wrist corsages. About the time we were adding it all together we spotted the sign: Welcome to Homecoming Weekend.  Then we also noticed the other restaurant on the square that was drawing people inside, George and Nick’s.  We like to try the non-chain, local places when we can find them.  This one seemed to fit that description.

 

As it turns out, we couldn’t have been more pleased that the other dining establishment was occupied. This was one of those finds  that you reminisce about down the road. We had delicious Italian food and fabulous people watching.  Actually, our timing was just right. As we were ordering and consuming our creamy alfredo and pesto pastas, we had a front row seat to discreetly follow the teenagers socially interacting in their finery.  Although the tried and true tradition of the Homecoming event seemed to be preserved, the current influence was also evident. Not  far from each young person’s hand was their trusted texting machine.  As the under-twenties enjoyed their dates, other local citizens of another generation roamed in to fill the room. We were sure that the atmosphere was as good as we could have hoped, a mix of then and now.

See you soon.