Granddaughter Becky's New "Do"

One of life's pleasures are grandchildren and today I enjoyed my almost 15-yr-old granddaughter Becky's fun getting the LONG (down to her waist) hair cut off, getting some highlights and a new hair style! She's all ready for high school now. The cut off hair was even long enough to send off to Locks of Love , which was her idea to do.

How Short Do You Want It?

It's Gone!

Don't You Love That Smile!

Hair's Pulled Thru Cap to Bleach

Bleaching Hair

Under the Dryer

Bleached!

Highlight Color Put On

Getting Dryed and Styled




AND HERE'S THE NEW BECKY!

Warren, IN - Visiting Campbells

Fri (7/24/09 ): We left the FMCA Convention and headed west on Rt. 6 toward IN and then drove south on the beltway around Fort Wayne and got into Warren, IN about 2:00 p.m.. We stopped at the truck stop to dump one tank and fill up the other. We got all setup behind the "Big" House (water & electric) and headed over to the Campbell's for happy hour. Later, we headed to Ivanhoe's in Upland www.ivanhoes.info/ for tenderloin sandwiches and a strawberry shortcake with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream that the 4 of us shared it was so huge!

Sat (7/25/09): A thunderstorm rolled in about 4:00 a.m. and out went the power. Being hooked up to power behind the nursing home ("Big" House), their generator soon kicked in and we were back up and running. It was going to be a rainy morning. We headed back over to the Campbell's for breakfast--Lois' yummy Belgium waffles. After, Lois and I headed over to Warren's farmers' market and picked up a dozen ears of fresh corn on the cob, Jalapeno jelly (for Chuck) and apricot jelly and apple pie. Lunch was taken care of! I also picked up a box of frozen lightly breaded pork tenderloins to take home. I haven't seen any of these back in VA. Chuck spent several hours helping Jim figure out what was wrong with his computer. Lois and I spent the afternoon doing crafts--knitting & embroidery. We went to Fort Wayne for dinner tonight at Don Hall's Tavern www.donhalls.com/locations.asp?ID=37 . The martini's were good, oh and the dinner too!

Sun (7/26/09): We had a relaxing morning and early afternoon and I worked on the spreadsheet for our Colorado trip that we are going on with the Halsteads and Campbells. JimC is planning the route and the daily outings. Then Lois and I went in to the look at the gift shop items in "The Big House". I wanted to get a ceramic blow fish for my souring pad for the kitchen. I found a green one, which was just what I wanted! Then we went with the Campbells over to Huntington to the 4H Fair. Great hometown fair with NO rides. Great place for families to get together, look at all of the 4H projects and see the farm animals and of course EAT. We had smoked pork chops, applesauce, chips and bread with drink for $5.00! Where else can you eat like that for $5.00!

Monday we head to Indy to get tires for the Discovery and then head back to VA, where we will be home by noon on Tuesday. Seems like we are always planning the next trip(s) while we are on a trip. Isn't that what retirements all about!

Bowling Green, OH - FMCA Convention

Sat (7-18-09): We caravanned up to Bowling Green for the FMCA Convention. It was about an hours drive. We got parked in a gravel parking lot just behind the football stadium where all of the evening entertainment would be held.

Sun (7-19-09): Bowling Green hosted a downtown celebration for the FMCA attendees with live music. We drove down to check it out and ran into Larry & Pat Welsh and Nan and Jim Cooper!

Mon (7-20-09): We took a day trip over to Lake Erie (so Mem could stick her foot in it) and to see the Marblehead Lighthouse, have lunch and check out the Bon Ami winery at Catabaw, OH.

Mem with her foot in dirty Lake Erie!

Marble Head Lighthouse

We did a little wine tasting at the Bon Ami Winery http://www.bonamiwinery.com/ and bought a few bottles of wine. My favorite was the Gewurztraminer, which I proceeded to drink all of it that night!

On the way back to Bowling Green, we stopped at a roadside farm store and bought salt and pepper sweet corn for supper to go with our steaks. Oh, so good!

Tue, Wed & Thu (7-21-23-09): We checked out the venders booths and went thru a few of the coaches. No 2010 coaches are being manufactured so there wasn't anything really new that we hadn't already seen. Mem and I did a little shopping at some of the Bowling Green stores that we don't have back in VA--Hobby Lobby & Elder Biermans.

Fri (7-24-09): We packed up and headed over to Warren, IN to visit the Campbells for the weekend and then go to Indy to get new shoes for the coach.

Discovery Club 10th Anniversary Celebration

Friday evening the group gathered for a wonderful catered dinner. Jim Campbell showed a couple of slide show presentations of past club rallies. What fun remembering the good times that we had and some of the club members who are no longer with the group.

Karen & John Didich, Our Wapakoneta Rally Hosts

Jean & Gene Baldwin--Celebrated a recent anniversary and Jean's Big Birthday!

Rally Attendees for 10th Anniversary Celebration

[Back 2 rows: James & Brenda Lerud; Dennis & Lollie Kendrick; Harry & Mary Condrey; Bob & LaVerne Foerster; Bob Scull; Jim & Lois Campbell; John & Judy Wittenberg; John & Karen Didich; Bill & Judy Wagner; Bob & Phyllis Kreiner; Karen & Bob Beyer; Ed & Bekki Ripper - Front Row: Mem & Larry Halstead; Charlene Williams & Larry Carstensen; Donna & Chuck Tolson; Carol & James Mount; and Jean & Gene Baldwin]

DI 10th Anniversary Cake (Whoops--YMCA instead of FMCA)

Catered Dinner of BBQ Chicken, Ham, Apples & Green Beans

Bob Beyer Opening "Lunar Beer" for Sampling

Wittenbergs Talking to our Newest Discovery Club Members, the Halls

National Museum of the US Air Force--WOW!

We went to Dayton with the Halsteads and the Campbells for the day to see all of the planes at the US Air Force Museum. What a huge, air conditioned facility with so much to see and it was FREE. WOW, I highly recommend visiting if you are in this area of the country. Here are just a few of the highlights:

Bockscar

B-2 Stealth Bomber

Here's the perfect Golf Cart for Crystal Lake folks to take to go to dinner at the nearby restaurants! LarryH--do you think you can find us one?

Donna & Mem

www.wpafb.af.mil/museum Dayton, OH

PS. RalphP and JimM--we talked about how long it would take you two to go thru this museum if you read all of the placards and looked at every display! It would probably take you 3 days. Wish you were here with us!

Discovery Rally, KOA, Wapakoneta, OH

We are here at the KOA in Wapakoneta, OH along with 16 other Discovery Coaches. Karen and John Didich are our Discovery hosts for this rally. It is really nice to see "old" friends and also get to meet some of the newer members like Karen & Bob Beyer (GA), Phyllis & Bob Kreiner (FL), Brenda & Jim Lerud (IN) and Bekki & Ed Ripper (NC), who own the newest coach--a 2009. After setting up and getting some hugs, we met at the enclosed pavillion for Happy Hour and snacks and then pizza for dinner. The first day of a rally is catch up time to find out what folks have been up to, who's done something new to their coach (or had problems) and future travel plans or who's going to attend the next few rallies.

This is a very nice KOA--very clean and well manicured--though very small camping sites. But we know all of our neighbors, so it's ok!

Wapakoneta OH Discovery Rally Here We Come

Monday--July 13th

We headed out today about 8:30 a.m. to meet up with our traveling companions, Mem and Larry Halstead at the Truck Stop in Opal, VA. After breakfast there at the Truck Stop, we headed out. Our destination today is the Wal-Mart "campground" in Cambridge, OH.

Noisy Cambridge Ohio Wal-Mart Campground

After happy hour there next to our coach, Larry Halstead unhooked his tow car and we headed to the Cracker Barrel for dinner--chicken and dumplings for Mem and I, of course! After, we did our usual Wal-Mart shopping. As we came back to the coaches, we noticed that more and more young people had gathered in their cars at our end of the camping, ah parking lot. As the evening wore on, they got louder and louder and even used the road beside our coaches as a drag strip with screeching tires included. It finally quieted down about 1:00 a.m. We had stayed at this Wal-Mart a few times before and it was very quiet. Not any more.