In Cape Girardeau

 59º with heavy overcast here in Cape Girardeau, MO at 11 am on Monday.

With our borrowed car, we took Don & Vicki out to Yummies Buffet to eat last evening.  They enjoyed getting out.  Since we needed to return the car and get their pickup, we didn't spend time with Don's last night but drove out to the Diamonds and did the switch.  They needed the car today because he is having some surgery in St. Louis and she didn't want to drive the pickup on the return trip.

Saturday, since we were hung up here in Cape, waiting on our pickup repair, we went with the friends who are loaning us their car and went with them and another 6 people to "Mike's Cabin" some 70 miles northeast in Illinois.

We stopped at one of their places to pick up Jim and got a look at his place -- he has been widowed some 7 years -- and is an avid hunter with lots of trophies on the wall.

Pics below are at Mike's Cabin.

They like to target shoot, so spent some time at that.

Fire was built and hotdogs cooked on it.  Later they did some Smores.

The hot dogs along with coleslaw and baked beans with potato chips made the meal.

Later the Smores and lots of visiting.

Yesterday we drove Don & Vicki to their church for the 11 am service.  It is more of the rock & roll type than we are used to.  Guess the "traditional" service was earlier at 9:30

Plan on driving to Chateau to visit with Don & Vicki mid-afternoon and do some dominoes or something and then eat with them at the main dining hall.

More later, Lynn

In Cape Girardeau, MO

 61 degrees and rain here in Cape Girardeau, MO at 9:30 am Sunday.

This will be a little abbreviated and will try to make longer post later.  We left home last Wednesday morning  with our trailer and went to our friends Harold & LaRhoda Neher's place near Hiawatha, KS.

Thursday we drove the 414 miles or so to Cape Camping RV in Cape Girardeau.  Had a little low vibration in the pickup that we had thought we got rid of when had u-joints replaced last week in Clarinda.  Set up here and drove the couple miles to Don & Vicki's place for a short visit.  Vicki was not in a visiting mood.  We went to Cracker Barrell, here in Cape Friday morning and had brunch with brother Don and Mike & Mary Jo Diamond -- who are looking after Don & Vicki.  Don & Vicki had a van tour in the afternoon and we spent time at our trailer.  Went back up to Don's Friday evening and played a game of Chicken Foot Dominoes and had a better visit.  

We had a little vibration in the pickup even while not hooked to the trailer.  Went to a couple places on Saturday, but found they had their service departments closed, but ended up at Dodd's Tire & Auto where they felt my description, partly from Kevin Champ in Clarinda of  the torque converter starting to fail. To keep driving will likely cause more damage to the Torque Converter and probably the transmission.  They are a little short on employees, but assured me they will get to the pickup at least by Tuesday and that parts are available.  They are next door to the Chevrolet dealer who was closed and I said I would maybe wait until Monday and see if they could get to it right away.  The manager said he understood they were 3 weeks behind on anything major to work on.  Don't know if he was 100% true, but are leaving the pickup with them.  Our friends Mike & Mary Jo Diamond have loaned us their car and we will be here in this RV Park for several days.  Are going to go in a few minutes to pick up Don & Vicki to take them to church.

More later, LC

Ready to leave for Texas

 37º and dark at 9:00 pm Tuesday.  After my last two doctor's appointments today and mowing the lawn/leaves for one last time, have trailer hooked up and Phyllis has it packed and I have pickup packed.

Patty came by Saturday, bringing a packed suitcase that we will take down to Kenwood and she will use it when visiting us in February.  Had lunch with us.

Drained the Softub Hot Tub and

put it in the shop.

Deck cleared, benches up under the eaves, and basement "escape window" is covered.

Phyllis cleaned house refrigerator & freezer (eating out of it for some time now) and moved what is left into the trailer.  Will eat out of it on our 2-week trip to Texas.

Pickup pretty well filled up.  Having a few more suitcases of our own since we will not be in the trailer for quite a few days as we travel to Leesburg, FL and leave the trailer near Hazelhurst, Mississippi.

Must include a photo of our Grandson-in-law taking photo of our Great Grandkids with their cousin, on their Dad's side from this weekend.

Will pull out with the trailer in the morning and go to near Hiawatha, KS for some Pegs & Jokers and last visit with Harold & LaRhoda before going Thursday on to Cape Girardeau, MO for a few days.

Will try to keep in touch on the road.  LC

Our last week in Iowa for the year

 54º with light rain in Clarinda, IA at 10:50 am with prediction for heavy rain next several hours.  Has been warm ahead of this cold front moving in -- Omaha TV said they had 87º yesterday, which broke an over 100 year record of 84º as previous record high for the date.

Tree leaf colors changed dramatically in last day or so.

Took drive uptown this morning to Easter's Hardware store to get some mouse poison and took these shots of the colors.

Saturday afternoon we attended funeral of Shirley Joens.  She, and her husband Jerry, had sung in the Methodist Church Choir with us for some 40 years.  They moved to near Dallas, TX several years ago to be close to their only son and his family.  Jerry passed away some 4.5 years ago.  Their son and wife, along with almost all their kids and grandkids attended.  Curt and two of his girls gave quite loving recounting of their wife/mother.

This was a printed cloth that hung near the alter.

Got this photo of Linda, our Choir Director and organist, while at the funeral.

Linda is choir director at both our Methodist Church and the Westminster Presbyterian church here in Clarinda, we have joint practices together each Wednesday evening at our church and sing the same songs at our separate churches.  Sunday the combined choirs sang at our Methodist church at 9 am service and then again at the Presbyterian church at their 10:30 am service. 

Didn't get any photo in the Methodist service, but did snap a few at the Presbyterian church.

We are about to get the refrigerator/

freezer empty for our trip south,

and am sure you are

interested in my making

of salad of available

items.

More later, LC