Update - May to September 2010

                     I Have No Excuse

                     (At least not a good one!)

Once again, too much time has gone by since my last update. I am not sure where the time goes but we are beginning to realize that the older we get, the faster it goes!

My last update left off with our arrival in Cincinnati. We spent 3 weeks there visiting my family. There is a beautiful county owned campground, Winton Woods, that has great RV sites. As always, it is great to spend time with Mom, my 3 sisters, my brother and a few of the nieces and nephews. We hosted a big family cookout to celebrate Jameson’s 9^th birthday! We also played a little golf, tried bowling (first time since high school!) and did our part to boost the economy by eating out at our favorite local restaurants! We also took a short day trip to Dayton Ohio to visit the National Museum of the Air Force. They have 6 huge hangers full of aircraft from the early Wright Brother’s days all the way up to the space shuttle. It is very interesting and worth the trip. We only had a few hours but we could have spent 2 days trying to see everything. Tom also took a side trip to South Dakota to get his driver’s license and register to vote, now that we are officially residents of South Dakota.

From there we headed back to Massachusetts for a 6 week stay which again went by way too quickly! Unfortunately there are no nice campgrounds so we ended up at the local KOA. (definitely nothing special but a convenient location for the grandkids to visit.) The first week we both got caught up with all of our Dr. appointments and we are happy to report that we are both doing well (except for Tom’s knee)!  After that it was fun to reconnect with our many friends and Tom even got his part-time job back at the golf course. While he was busy working I was able to run away for a fun “girls weekend” in Ogunquit Maine with some of my friends. Tom & I also made it to 2 Rallys with our RV group which is always a grand time filled with fun and food!

From there we headed out to Minnesota and discovered a great stop on the way.  We stayed 2 nights at the Merry Knoll Campground in Clayton, NY. Clayton is in upstate NY in an area called Thousand Islands right on the St. Lawrence Seaway which is the border between the US and Canada. There are actually more than 1,000 islands……….1,864 to be exact. In order to be counted as an island, the property must have at least one tree and one other form of vegetation. Some of the islands are huge and have several homes, others are pretty small. The entire area up there is beautiful and the weather was perfect! From Clayton we drove about 10 miles down the road to Alexandria Bay (another cute little town on the water) and took a 3 hour boat tour which stopped for a visit at one of the two big castles that were built on two of the islands. There is also an Antique Boat Museum in the area and while we were there we went to an Antique Boat Show. Tom had fun looking at all of the old boats and reminiscing about the fun he had growing up on Lake Minnetonka. After the boat show we took another drive to see the Tibbett’s Point Lighthouse which is near where the St. Lawrence Seaway meets Lake Ontario.

From Clayton we traveled through Canada, not great roads but pretty country and much better than going anywhere near Chicago. Back in the US we tried some of our usual “Casino Camping” in Marquette, Michigan and Hinckley, Minnesota. In Marquette there was a huge field of wild blueberries right behind our campsite so we helped ourselves to a big basket full! 

We arrived in Minnesota and are very fortunate to be able to park our RV home at Tom’s sister Virginia’s home in Minnetonka. Her husband Anson even chopped down a tree down near the driveway to make sure our new RV would fit! They have a big fenced in yard and 2 dogs for Abbey and Jameson to play with. Tom’s daughter, Tamara, also has 2 dogs and when they come for a visit it gets pretty wild here! Abbey & Jameson are getting up there in dog years (Abbey turned 70! on September 1^st and Jameson is only 8 months behind her). Both of their dogs are 2 year olds and have much more energy! Jameson tries to play for a while, but doesn’t last long. He’s still young at heart! Abbey is happy just to lie in the sun or hang out in her RV!  Jameson has also discovered Virginia’s vegetable garden and helps himself to cherry tomatoes and raspberries when he thinks we are not looking!

The big event scheduled for our visit here was Tom’s 70^th Birthday party. His son and daughter and the grandkids from Massachusetts all came out to join the celebration. I think there were more than 40 of us counting nieces and nephews and 7 of our 9 grandkids (one working in Boston and one working in California). It was a great party and we are both grateful that everyone could be here! The grandkids had fun out here tubing on the lake and hanging out at the Mall of America! Our 2 younger grandkids who live out here have joined us as much as they could but they are 15 and 16 now, both in high school and keep pretty busy with all of their friends and part-time jobs!

As long as we had planned to be here for at least 6 weeks, Tom decided that this would be a good place to have his total knee replacement surgery. The surgery was on August 2^nd and he got through that part fairly easily. The follow-up with physical therapy twice a week at the Clinic and home exercises twice a day for the next 6 weeks has been a bit more of a challenge. Tom has been a real trooper and followed the Doctor’s orders, never skipping a session! As a result, today he is doing very well! We walk a mile or two every day and go for short bike rides.  This week we even played golf, just 9 holes at a par 3 course but it was golf!

As long as he was not able to drive for a while with his bum knee, he decided it would be a good time to deal with his deteriorating eyesight due to his cataracts. He had both eyes done and the Dr. was able to put corrective lenses in so now he can see better than ever without glasses or contacts! We went out to dinner a few nights ago with some of the family and he was the only one at the table that could read the menu without glasses! He is really psyched about this improvement! I am too! Now he can share some of the night driving!

So, now that Tom is all put back together we are getting ready to begin our big western adventure! We’ll be heading to South Dakota (I have to get my driver’s license and register to vote!) Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and into western Canada. We don’t really have a plan; I guess we’ll figure it out as we travel along!

So in the course of this update we have returned “Home” ……..several times.

 But where is “Home”?  Is it where you grew up? Where your family still lives?  Where you spent most of your adult life and your working career?  I guess for us, at least for right now and the immediate future……..Home Is Where We Park It!

Now that I am caught up and have figured out this Blog thing, the updates will be more frequent and a lot shorter!

Hope all is well with you. See you down the road!

See Our Photos at

http://picasaweb.google.com/KHStaska/Sept2010Update?authkey=Gv1sRgCP7jte-Zp-_JjgE#slideshow/5518809625100127250

Kathy & Tom

Abbey & Jameson