Christmas in Kentucky

Spending Christmas 2012 in Kentucky will always have a warm place in my heart. We even had a little snow on the 21st. For the last few Christmases, Shannon loves setting the mood by wearing  a Santa hat or reindeer horns on her head.  Mckenna loves to write stories and shared with us her latest work, about how a sled dog in Alaska saves the day.

A small apartment sized Christmas tree was just perfect for their small abode and, as we learned, the decorations need not be grandiose. What matters most attitude, yours and everyone else.
For us being together was the grandest gift of all.  We could all feel the love and appreciation for each other.  As long as we have that then happiness and joy abounds which was certainly our experience in 2012.  I just can't imagine spending Christmas without family.

And of course, we had to make Christian Christmas Cookies.  Why, it wouldn't be Christmas without them!  Frosting them is a labor of love as you can see by these fabulous works of art.  Being  together to making treats, or go shopping and wrapping presents, anticipating the joy of seeing someone open a gift from you.  That was Christmas in Kentucky and the memories will never fade.   Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year

Mother and Daughter Tradition

My daughter-in-law and granddaughters enjoyed the tradition of shopping in the wee hours of the morning on Black Friday.  I say, Why bother, when you can avoid the long lines and buy everything you need on Amazon.  😊

Ruthie on Black Friday

Moving to Town

Kozy Mobil Home Park, Nicholasville, KY

November 21, 2012  Right before Thanksgiving we moved to Kozy Mobil Home Park in Nicholasville.  It is actually within walking distance to John & Ruth's Apartment.  The past few weeks have been busy.  Sunni left October 31 for her CL Retreat in Nashville, TN.  Then, John and Ruth left for their annual company retreat for the weekend leaving me, Mckenna and Shannon to fend for ourselves.

Spent many days in November looking for the perfect house for John and Ruth but never finding it.  It seemed Ruth was comparing all the homes with a home south of Nicholasville that they had looked at before we came.  It became the measuring stick for everything else. There are a lot of homes for sale because of the financial collapse and recession that followed.  This one seemed to be out of there reach.

Dream house on Brumfield Rd.

Barn Quilts and Country Roads

Tuesday, Oct 23 The country around Lexington and Nicholasville is beautiful with rolling grass covered hills divided into pastures and fields by rock walls and wooden fences.  A mixture of old and new homes, some which are graceful and grand and some more simple dot the countryside along with old tobacco barns.  A maze of windy narrow roads provide access and dip and turn with the terrain, keeping drivers inexperienced with such roads from enjoying the scenery.

Today, Ruth took us a a drive and we enjoyed the fall colors of oaks and maples and a variety of smaller vegetation all dressed in fall colors.  John and Ruth have talked about finding a house they could buy in the country so part of today's expedition was to show us some of the homes in the area that appealed to them.  

I was fascinated with the barn quilts that decorate the barns. Barn quilts similar in design to quilts but are painted on large wooden signboard and hung under the peak of the roof above the barn door.  

First Paid Campground

Sunday, Oct 21, 2012  Got on the Road around 8 am this morning and traveled to Princeton, Illinois, Jim's birth place.  We parked the motorhome and tried to find Beryl and Dorothy's graves but I couldn't remember the name of the cemetery.  Because it was Sunday and we didn't have much times and had to abandon the quest and move on.  Stopped for the night at a KOA in Crawfordville, Indiana.  This was our first paid campsite.

Crowfordville, IN KOA

Monday, Oct 22 2012 In the morning we took Highway 231 south to avoid Indianapolis  and then Hwy 231 through  Bloomington  and picked up I-65 heading south.  The good news today is we found a Break-buddy around Scottsburg.  The guy gave us good directions and I got a cash discount and paid $250 instead of $300.  The bad news I drove the motorhome down his street which had a cul-de-sac at the end.  I had to unhitch the car and have Sunni move it out of the way while I turned the Motorhome around.

I-65 goes right across the river to Louisville and we both though that was going to be trouble but it turned one to be a low traffic day.  We caught the 64 over to Lexington and and the 27 into Nicholasville.  Had some problems getting into the apartment complex where John and Ruth are but all was fine.  We were talking to them on the phone trying to find the turn.  Ruth said, "I can see you! I can see you."  Turn left at the light."  It seemed to work much better than the GPS which wanted us to make a U-turn.

We took the motorhome out to Camp Nelson RV park on the Kentucky River about 7 miles south of Nicholasville.  It was down in a canyon which lack sunlight but other than than and being far from our kids it was okay. Paid for four weeks.  Most RV Parks close during the winter back here which seems kind of odd because the weather isn't any worse than Spokane where there are RV parks open all year round.

Our First Walmart

Saturday Oct 20  This evening I am thinking that we are real RV'ers now because we are staying in our first Walmart!  And, as I am sure they expected, bought groceries there and had some breakfast there in the morning,  Also, we did ask.  They told us to pull over to the left side of their parking lot and it would be okay.

Walmart, Clinton, IA

While we are traveling, we are looking for a used Break Buddy to put in the Jeep.  Although I don't think it matter one way or the other if we got into an accident, I understand the insurance companies would frown on it, maybe not pay or protect us from a lawsuit.  So, Sunni has been looking at and calling Craig's list as we travel through towns.  No luck as of yet.

We missed an opportunity earlier in the day.  We called someone who was trying to sell his Blue Ox, a similar device, while driving into Cedar Rapids, but he didn't call until we were 75 miles past the city.  I didn't want to turn around and told him our predicament.  We'll keep looking, I'm sure someone has one for sale up ahead.

Iowa Prairie

Friday Oct 19, 2012  Pulled into Beresford, South Dakota the next afternoon and went through town looking for a place to stay, hoping for a small park but didn't find any so we stopped at Emily's Cafe on the way out of town for Diner, thinking it would be another long and noisy night at a truck stop or rest stop.  We pared our rig in a large vacant lot next door and upon leaving we had the good sense to ask if it would be okay to stay the night next door.  They told us people do it all the time so, happily we didn't have any late travels.  So far this trip has cost us nothing for RV accommodations for the night, but there are some drawbacks.  No hookups.  For travel this is okay but when we get somewhere to stay awhile, we'll need our creature comforts.  And since Sunni is writing, we will need internet as well.  Pretty spoiled pair, don't 'cha think?

Beresford, South Dakota