Karen & Collins' Great RV Adventures: THE SUMMER FROM HELL!!

DON'T FORGET YOU CAN DOUBLE CLICK THE PICTURES TO MAKE THEM LARGER

When we left IL in mid April, we knew we’d be back again the end of May for our grandson, Danny’s graduation. We also had a tenant moving from one of our houses & we knew we’d need to spend about a month doing a rehab on it. So we decided we’d return with the RV. We’d left the RV in Altus, Oklahoma for the winter. It’s almost on the border of Texas. We picked up the RV & stayed a couple weeks in OK, getting everything ready to go for the year. As we made our way back to IL (the first time we’d have the RV there in 4 years), we made some stops along the way.

Our first stop was Hot Springs, Arkansas. We stayed in a nice State Park right on Lake Katherine.

These ducks decided to visit our campsite each day

We did a little sight seeing while we were there. Of course, we had to go to Bath House Row.

This street is lined with what used to be active bath houses built in the early 1900’s. At that time, people came from all over to use the hot mineral springs for medicinal powers. Today, there are only 2 active bath houses. We decided we should at least check them out while we were there. We chose a cool, rainy day, which made sitting in a nice hot mineral bath rather inviting.

Four pools of different temperatures

The one we chose, had 4 different pools at different temps. It was a good way to spend a couple hours.

Pretty glass ceiling over the pools

We also decided to check out the Diamond Mine in AR. It really wasn’t what we were expecting.

It was a huge field where people dug holes or just turned over some earth. Collins & I walked a few rows of dirt that had been recently turned & occasionally scratched at a couple spots that looked shiny in the daylight. Needless to say, we didn’t walk away with anything of value. It was an interesting jaunt.

Collins is checking out the hole

We decided to have a little fun while there & stopped for a game of miniature golf. I (Karen) won on the last hole, with a hole in one.

After leaving Hot Springs, we planned a stop in Little Rock to see the Clinton Presidential Library.
Not too far from our destination, some older lady sideswiped us on the expressway. Luckily for us, she was honest & pulled over to give us all her insurance information. She managed to put a pretty good crease in one of the side storage doors & a few other scratches. Thankfully, it was nothing major & no one was hurt. We were back on the road & headed to our destination.

Clinton Presidential Library

We’d never been to a Presidential Library before & found it full of interesting information & artifacts.

Exact duplicate of Clinton's Oval Office

They even had a mock up of the Oval Office, as it was when Clinton was president.

Ceiling of Oval Office

We spent several hours there before heading to Memphis, TN.

Gifts given to Clinton

Some of Clinton China

We were on our way to Nashville to visit with friends but didn’t want to drive all the way in one day. I told Collins since we were going thru Memphis, we could stay there a couple of nights & go to Graceland.

It wasn’t that we were huge Elvis fans, but how can you not go to Graceland, when you’re right there. We were glad we took the time to go. It was quite interesting.

We got to see his planes , all his different cars, motorcycles & other “toys”. He had a lot!

Graceland itself is really no big deal. It was just a large, 2 story home on several acres of land.

Upstairs Family Room

We didn’t get to see the upper level, but the main floor was left as is & so was the basement. Some of the rooms were decorated very odd.

Downstairs pool room

Elvis Outfits

Priscilla's Wedding Dress

A couple of the other buildings had lots of information & old costumes, etc. Of course, there is also his gravesite there, along with his mother & father.

Betty at Opryland Hotel

May 10th we arrived at our friends outside Nashville, TN. Betty & Nick moved from IL about 5 years ago, so it was nice to have a chance to visit them on our way back to IL.

Beautiful Gardens in Opryland Hotel

Of course, nothing is ever simple. We parked the RV in their clubhouse parking lot & stayed with Betty & Nick. On Sunday we went over to get a couple of items & discovered our refrigerator wasn’t working. Luckily, it hadn’t been out too long, so we were able to put most of the things in Betty’s frig. The next day we had a guy out to take a look. He said it was the cooling unit & circuit board, which would have to be ordered. We said ok, but after waiting a week, we couldn’t wait any longer so we had to cancel the order & head for IL. We put everything we wanted to keep in a couple of coolers & just added ice each day. Danny’s graduation was May 29th & we had to make a stop in Lexington, KY to get my mother.

Our new refrigerator

Since we brought my mom with us, she stayed with my brother for the week. We parked the RV in the Walmart parking lot nearby, since there really aren’t any RV parks too close. During that week, Collins & my brother Rob put in a beautiful new Samsung residential refrigerator in the RV. I had really wanted to make that change so we decided to go ahead since the old one cost more to fix anyway. I love it!! It’s big, the shelves are deep, it’s COLD, & you don’t have to defrost the freezer.

We arrived in IL in time to attend the graduation of our grandson Ryan from Middle School

Ryan & Grandma

Katie, Pam, Ryan & Aaron

Becca, Dave, Danny, Paula & Tyler

Dave, Danny & Paula

Of course, we also had our grandson, Danny's, high school graduation. Hard to believe he's off to College.

Granddad, Danny & Grandma

Granny & Danny

Paula, Granny, Danny, Grandma & Becca

He's on a baseball scholarship & received all kinds of awards & recognition for his pitching ability. In fact he was honored at Sox Field as one of the top pitchers in his division.

Tyler, Danny & Ryan at Sox Park

Ryan & Tyler at Sox Park

June 2nd we moved the RV to a Forest Preserve campground, not too far from the house we had to rehab. The only problem with it, was that we could only stay there 14 out of 21 days. So every 2 weeks we had to find a new home. Our tenant in the house we were going to rehab hadn’t moved out because she couldn’t find a place to move, altho it was her idea to move in the first place. We ended up spending most of June working in the yard of our own house. Unfortunately, our tenants hadn’t done a good job on weed control, so there were lots of weeds to be wacked & then sprayed with roundup. There were also a lot of overgrown & dead trees to take care of, so we spent many long hours (almost every day in June) working there.

Amish Carriages at store

Amish Quilts painted on buildings & barns

We did take one week when we had to leave the forest preserve & go to Amish Country in IN. We lived in IL for over 50 years & never did that, so we figured this was a good time to do it. We didn’t really find it to be any big deal, but it was nice to get away. One thing we did find interesting. The Amish don’t use cars or things like that, but one day, we must have seen 10 or 12 different families cutting their grass with power mowers. We sure didn’t understand that one.

Amish Quilt Garden

Collins & Snuggles taking a break at the museum

We also visited the RV Museum while we were there. It was interesting to check out all the old time trailers & motorhomes

This was in front of the RV Museum

Since we were in Elkhart, IN, elk statues were the thing there.

Old trailer

Pam & Ryan

We took one evening while at the campground to celebrate 3 birthdays - Pam's, Ryan's & Tyler's.

Building a fire

We've got fire

Katie & Pam

Ryan & Tyler

When we finally got to the rental house around the 4th of July, we had quite a project ahead of us. It was built in 89 & they had been there over 10 years so it was time. I never realized how filthy they were until we got in there. I only asked them to clean 2 things before they left, the stove & frig because they were about the only things staying. It took me 3 days to clean the frig, which they said they had done!! Anyway, we took out all the cabinets, baths, flooring, everything. We had help, but it was still a huge amount of work for us. It looked beautiful when we finished & we rerented to an older couple. Yeah, no kids to destroy our beautiful new house!!

On top of that, our youngest daughter & family decided they wanted to buy our personal house, which as I had said, was rented. It was on a lease that ended July 31 which should have worked out ok. Pam & AAron closed on their house July 24, but put their stuff in storage & were staying with different people for that week. We had never thought these kids would want the house so we were shocked & the tenants weren't happy because they eventually wanted to buy the it, but had bad credit from a foreclosure. Anyway, they found out they could buy something so they found another house. The night after Pam & Aaron moved out of their house, our tenant called & said they'd been turned down for the mortgage & weren't moving until they found something else. Now Pam & Aaron & their 2 kids were homeless & those people wouldn't leave. It was a mess to say the least. Our daughter & family ended up living in our other daughter's unfinished basement for 5 weeks. The worse part was that this was the summer our daughter had decided to remodel the master bath, so there were 1.5 baths for 9 people, not so good when school started. In the meantime, we had to hire an attorney & go thru the eviction process. As it turned out, they had reapplied for the mortgage & did manage to get the house they were trying for. They had to be out by midnight Aug 30th. We've had to evict tenants before, but this was so personal because it affected our family. I felt so sorry for my 11 year old granddaughter who cried because all she wanted was her own bed & her dog, which we had because my other daughter's dog was in heat. I lost a lot of sleep over that whole situation. You feel so helpless because the courts really favor the tenants in this state. At least, they're now moved in & in the process of "making it their own". To top things off, one of our other tenants decided to split up so they moved out the end of Aug. We went in there & it was a disaster, so now we had another new project to start. We ended up replacing cabinets, bath tub, painting, etc. It was a job, but it looked great when we finished & got it rerented.