Friends, Family, Fun and Food - and Some More of That Responsible Stuff

Our final week back in the old hometown has been a good mix of visiting friends, hanging out at home, grandson time, final necessary appointments, and a lovely family Thanksgiving. 

Good friends, Steve and Lori, agreed to be our "address", and have made that piece of our new life so simple. We drove down to visit them, enjoy a wonderful dinner, and pick up the very few items that we actually needed after six months :-) Hard to believe I went out to the mailbox every day! It was so fun to get caught up with them, share our adventures, and make plans to see them again for New Years. I need to set a "photo alarm" so I'll remember to take pics of friends!

Getting to spend time with Ezra is a real highlight of our extended time here. He has grown so much in just three weeks! I went to their place several times, just to hang out, or to take he and his mommy out to run errands. Daddy's work hours get him home in the evening so we've seen him less, but they have all been over to visit a couple times - even better!! No problem remembering to take pics of this guy :-)))

Watching video of himself

Proud Daddy and the little man

Got the rig in and out of Camping World for the slide and windshield-rubber fixes on Monday - two warranty items remain, neither are life-style altering, and we plan to complete those before the end of next month. 

The black trim on the Jeep has been gray from oxidation for months, making it look as old as it really is. I had no desire to pick up the black paint stuff or multi-step restoration kits - I figured there had to be at least one household hack on line that would take care of it. 

Yep! Just this and two paper towels

After "peanut-buttering" our car

Looks like new, and smells great!

A very simple process of wiping on with one towel, scrub very little, and remove with another towel. We'll see how it holds up - and whether or not we attract a large number of squirrels at our camp sites....

I made a deal with my doctor that if my cholesterol was still high when we returned I would go on Lipitor. While all my numbers improved, including decreased weight, and getting my blood sugar back to normal, the cholesterol is still higher than it should be. Not thrilled about the statin, but grateful to have good insurance, and for the overall better health.

Nick and Jillian hosted their first Thanksgiving for the whole family (after just 3 weeks of marriage), and it was a great day! Unfortunately Brian and Shalise had already made plans around her family, and Jeff was not going to travel on this craziest of airport-weekends, so we missed having them with us. But the other brothers and their girlfriends were there, as well as their mom and Jillian's parents. A wonderful family visit with a delicious meal. (Thanks to Jillian for the pics)

Family

Bill made his famous dressing in our kitchen so the rig smelled like Thanksgiving without all the usual work! The boys continued their dad's tradition of barbecued turkey (on his old Weber), and it was fabulous - good job guys!! 

We played a fun game after dinner and then enjoyed way too much dessert. Jillian had to-go containers for all of us to take home left-overs, so the holiday was complete :-)

Yummies

Emily, Travis' girlfriend, couldn't stay but we sure enjoyed her cheesecake bites!

Food coma

Before we left for the family gathering, Scott (we're staying on his property), and his cousin and daughter came over to play with his radio-controlled cars. Autumn, his daughter, has been "scared of" Bill since she was a baby but has finally warmed up to him, and it just makes him so happy!!  They hung out while the "boys" played with the little and big toys.

Autumn hangin' with Pops

Boys and their toys

Now they're buds...

We have a couple more get-togethers before saying our good-byes on Sunday afternoon. It has been wonderful seeing family and friends again, yet the road calls loudly for us to continue our adventures.

Can we go now?