Day 95
The title to this blog definitely has some double entandra meaning, but we’ll get into that later. After 4 days west of Chicago, we moved on to East St Louis/Cahokia Illinois. Who knew there was an East St Louis in Illinois? Didn’t do a lot of touristy stuff in St Louis as we were a bit tired from the 250 mile drive and my hip is really starting to limit my activity. Any white light and healing energy you can send my way would be really appreciated.
The Cahokia RV campground was very nice, albeit it a bit tight. We backed into our site and when all was said and done, we were a mere 36 inches from the coach behind us. Vicki skillfully backed me in and before she did she made sure I understood that when she said stop, she wasn’t kidding. I backed in and she docked us within 36 inches of another Class A coach. The Cahokia RV Parque (a bit pretentious for a name. Guess that justified the extra expense) was very accommodating with some extra services not found in most parks. A shuttle service to anywhere in St. Louis based on availability. Didn’t use it, but nice to know it was available. Did some grocery shopping at a Schnuck’s and wow are they proud of their food. Thought we were shopping at Whole Foods, or as I like to refer to it as Whole PayCheck.
The folks at the front desk were wonderful and willing to bend over backwards to accommodate our needs. I’d recommend this to anyone staying in St Louis. There were alot of long term workers, mostly in the medical field as there was a parade of vehicles leaving and returning at 6 am, 3pm and 11 pm. All were in scrubs so my assumption was they were travelers.
Need to refer back to a previous post about men over 20 going shirtless. Vicki was walking the dogs and came back very pale. I asked are you all right? She replied there is not enough bleach in the world to erase the image I saw of a man in daisy duke shorts with suspenders and no shirt. Where is Versed when you need it most.
The one toursity thing we did was spend a half day at the St Louis Science Center. Enjoyed the exhibits and Vicki got her first experience inside a Planetarium. A very nice show explaining the Zodiac signs and the difference between Astronomy and Astrology. Fascinating show and look forward to watching other shows in other planetariums.
We then said a fond adieu to Cahokia and headed for I-44 enroute to OKC. Going down the interstate there are countless billboards, but these caught our eye.
This is either marketing genius or the company has issues. And they’re worried about Drag Shows? C’mon Man!!!!
We arrived in Phillipsburgh MO for a one night stay and had a delightful spot looking at a large pond. While enjoying our afternoon coffee cocktail on a bench next to the pond, we feed some curious ducks who were out for a stroll. We then saw what we believe to be a rather large carp. Any fishermen out there please either confirm or deny.
This fish was just lazily swimming near the shore and every now and then its caudal fin would emerge and then gently submerge. We’ll be on the road again tomorrow and heading into Oklahoma. The weather has been delightful and so far we’ve avoided the severe weather all about the country. Can’t wait to get to Las Vegas to be reunited with family and friends. Did I mention? We’re still loving retirement.
Day 96
Today we are in Big Cabin Oklahoma. It calls to mind the scene from Wayne’s World as they stood in front of a green screen, ‘We’re in Delaware’. Population 220 and we’re in a campground with 10 spaces, only three occupied with one of them being us. Left St Louis via I-44 which we’ll be on all day tomorrow for our arrival in OKC. We’ll spend 4 days there seeing the changes before our bee line to Las Vegas. The weather has turned humid and watching the local news, we’re seeing thunderstorms on our horizon. So long as they don’t have hail, we should be okay. We did have one active neighbor here, but again I must reiterate, man nipples are very unpleasant to look at especially when they are attached to 60+ year old men. Not that I’m body shaming, but damn, we’re just trying to eat our breakfast. Put your f****ng shirt on!!
The cribbage school opened for a short while, and while the student has remember the game quite well, the master still teaches the young padawon. One day, the force will come upon you! We then settled in for a nice supper of pork roast, cabbage and corn. Enjoyed episodes of Doc Martin, Elementary, RuPaul’s Drag All-Stars, and Numb3rs. Do love catching up on television we missed while working. Must say, still loving retirement.
Day 97
Onto I-44 we went and thanks to RV Trip Wizard, we got to explore the outskirts of Tulsa at no extra charge! Technology is wonderful when it works, but when it doesn’t it truly sucks!! Made it back onto I-44 where we were greeted with another $12.50 toll to get from Tulsa to OKC. And I thought Florida was bad!!! As we drove we looked for landmarks we’d thought would be familiar, but were they? Not even close. It’s like exploring a whole new city with just a touch of DeJaVu. Will look to visit Vicki’s cousin and her new baby and possibly see an OKC Dodger game. Will also make a day of seeing the Native American Museum and look at history of Oklahoma from a much different perspective. Should be a definite learning experience.
After arriving in OKC’s Road Runner Park, had a quick nap and then headed into Moore to the Social Security Office. It was actually a great experience and Amber, the nice lady who serviced us, got our situation all squared away and I am now enrolled in Medicare as of August 1. Now all that needs to be done on that front is add the supplemental.
When we walked into the Social Security office at 3:30 was sunny and clear, when we walked out there was a storm a brewin’ Auntie Em!! Got back to the rig and unloaded the bicycles just as 50+ mph winds began to blow against the passenger side of the rig. Was definitely a challenge putting the bike covers on, but we got it done. Watching the local news there were tornados to both the south and north of us, but thankfully all we had was straight winds. No hail thank goodness and no damage either. Vicki went into storm mode so put together a go bag of all important documents in case we needed to evacuate to storm shelters. This park has weird rules that don’t allow pets in the storm shelters, but at least they have a designated building for them. Think it’s kind of bogus, but I understand the purpose of the rule.
It is 95 degrees with 30% RH at 2 in the afternoon, so outdoor experiences are definitely limited. Forgot how hot it is here in the plains. Other than that, we are still loving retirement!
Day 98
Another day of hot and muggy, but we did do a bit of sightseeing, albeit mostly focused on shopping for the weird stuff you normally pick up. Knowing that Bed, Bath and Beyond is folding, we found a brick and mortar and went in looking for some bargains. Not so fortunate as they had marked everything down 40%, which would seem to be a deal, but they had previously marked it up 50%. C’mon Man!!! But we picked up some new cloth napkins, placements, etc and giant bottle of Listerine to keep our breaths minty fresh! Tried going to the Farmers Market in OKC only to discover they only open on weekends. So that will be a trip for tomorrow.
We then went to Wally World and pick up the usual water filters, sewer hoses, and things we normally don’t throw into our baskets and returned home. Annie is having stomach issues probably due to a slight change in dog food. Just means we cannot put the carpets down until this passes. She tries to tell us by going to the door, but sometimes we are not quick enough to read her messages. While walking her in the evening, met a wonderful group of ladies who are going cross country on the Caravan of Hope: A rolling resistance. They are out of Philadelphia and are providing pro bono legal services for LGBTQ folks. They’re web site is www.caravanofhope.LGBT and any suport you can throw their way I’m sure will be appreciated.
Bit of another rant. Why, here in the 21st century, do we even have to have such herculean efforts by folks to get rights for specific groups of people? We’ve become so narrow minded that we fail to see that when another human being is denied equal rights, we all suffer. We are not a caste system, there should not be the haves and the have nots. I’m not advocating socialism, I’m advocating equality. No one group should get benefits over another group. Discrimination is such a powerful weapon that needs to be understood for what it is and removed from our collective psych. Don’t build a high wall, build a bigger table. The LGBTQ community needs to be recognized for what it is, a community of wonderful, loving, hardworking people. What people do in their own homes is their business. Gay is not contagious, nor are members of this community recruiting. They just want to live their lives, love who they want, and be recognized for who they are. Because in the end, aren’t we all simply Americans?
Enough ranting, Vicki and I did score a bit of coupe when we called 1000 Trails and moved our Florida reservation much closer to Emmett’s location in Florida at the end of July. So looking foward to watching him play baseball and watching Ollie in Vegas perform with his hip-hop group. It will be so nice to connect with family and friends again. Shout out to Christie and Robert!!! Other than that, we are doing ok, Just the normal aches and pains of everyday life, but did I mention, we’re still loving retirement!!!
