July Moving Fast

Once again I suck at this. Trying to do this once a week really does not work for me… I lack discipline to get it done.  Fair amount of things happening lately and a lot of work travel the last two weeks has kept me on my toes. I could have been on a very nice beach somewhere with the time I have spent in my truck the last few weeks…..could have made the trip back home to restock and been on my way back to the beach. It’s amazing how quickly the miles add up. Endless miles on the road gets boring and I do like going someplace new or somewhere I have not been in a while. As a subscriber to XM for many years now…even it gets old on some of the longer trips. One thing I started doing to break up the monotony is downloading Podcasts. There is really something out there for anyone and any interest.  Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast has gotten me through the last few weeks on the road. Pretty damn funny and topical. Check it out. By far most of the Pod Cast’s that are out there are people that are just essentially doing an audio blog and some are better than others.  

We went out of the norm for the 4^th and went camping at our old standby Cuvier River State Park. I think this place has gotten a little long in the tooth for me. We always stay at Site#1 right next to the playground. It’s really a great setup especially if it’s just Sam and I because it is easy to keep an eye on him while making dinner or going inside for a minute. The downside is that every time we have gone there it seems to rain and the site is such as mess when it rains. Everything turns to mud and that’s just not fun….at least for me. I really appreciate now a nice concrete or blacktop pad or at minimum good gravel. Like clockwork the sky let loose on Saturday night around dinner time and it turned into a swamp. We ended up packing up the kids and heading back home for the night.  Regardless we had a great time as we were there for two nights and got to really un-wind and get some fresh Air. We all slept great Friday night with Ali even commenting that she felt refreshed. Amazing what a little fresh air will do!

The house is coming along nicely….see the page dedicated to this process at the top of the blog. I really 

don’t know how to write it all up so I am just posting pictures for folks to see. It’s also really cool to scroll down to see the progress. The next two weeks will be a big transformation with the walls and roof going on than the entire infrastructure such as plumbing and electrical going in. The nice thing about the builder is that they will allow you to visit your house and monitor the progress as its being built. It’s a good chance to catch any issues or problems.

Few things on the horizon for the next few weeks....Taking Sam to the beach for a few days and a couple Camping trips. Summer is going to be over soon I can feel it already.  

2013 Camping Season

It’s Friday. That’s great news. I am finally getting caught up after a few days of fun with the guys in Vegas and I am finding myself dozing off thinking about other things. Started thinking about camping with the kids and trying to plan out at least a few weekends on top of all the other things we have going on this year. We are in the middle of trying to sell our home (remaining positive….we will sell) and most likely building another in New Town, so that’s going to be a big decider of our 2013 schedule. My brother is getting married and even though I am not the one getting hitched it’s a pretty big deal. Ali and I are also going to take a trip to Florida sometime in August. Throw in a possible trip to Ohio and at least one Houston visit…the schedule starts stacking up. That’s one of the best things about the camper…you really don’t need to do anything but hitch up and take off. If you have a free weekend you can decide the day before or even the day of.

Since buying Clarabelle last year, we actually used it much more than I thought we would with all the things going on in 2012. Not that it’s a contest but I would assume it will get used a bit more this season. I wanted to hit at least one of the holiday’s this year. It’s surprising to see that almost all the state park sites book up quickly….Labor day at Lake of the Ozarks is already full! Being new at this I have learned that you need to be on the gun 6 months ahead of the holiday to make the reservations.

On the list this year to hit:

*Babbler State Park in Wildwood- Very close to home with all paved sites. Heard nothing but good things about this park on line. Only drawback is there is not a playground there. Its worth checking out.

*Lake of the Ozarks State Park- We stayed here in a rental in 2011 and it was our first camping trip ever. It didn’t go smoothly because mainly of the equipment and the fact you had to take everything with you because it was a rental.  It was a cool park and now that we are a bit more seasoned…it will be a good time.

*Pere Marquette Alton Ill- This is another that is on the list. It’s a bit of an unknown as the Illinois state park department website is a bit lacking but its close enough to the house it would be worth driving out and taking a look.

* Cuvier River in Troy- Spent 6 nights there last year. Site #1 is literally next to the playground and is a big hit with Sam. This is a go to for sure.

Any Others?

Winter Approaching Quick

I sometimes forget about this Blog and the things I have written on it. It is nice to go back and see all the little things that I have written over the last few years…almost a time capsule of sorts. The last year has brought some unique challenges and while I have attempted to keep track of them in the cyber world there is a lot that gets missed. Our newest addition, Max is adapting fine to his new world. He is a totally different experience than our first….They are really polar opposites in terms of behavior at this stage. Life has become more routine and not so much of a panic. The one thing that I have learned through the whole process of becoming a parent is to have patience with everything.

Sam has gotten to that pivotal point of losing his shit on a regular occasion and the "time outs" have started with frightening frequency. Since the last update not much has changed in our lives other than we now are getting better sleep…still waking up in the middle of the night but typically that is short lived. I am now to the point that I can officially say that I hate diapers. All types. Sam has started to go on the potty a bit more so things are looking up to some degree.

I have been struggling at work to find the time in the day to get things done. It seems that I am doing a lot of things for free these days….Normally this does not bother me much as you typically are working towards an order but lately it seems we are doing a lot of damage control for projects that have been mis managed or dropped entirely by our project managers or applications people. Our lead time are starting to get drawn out further and further and getting things in a timely manner is usually a major issue today. I guess that this is a good thing as it indicates that the economy is picking up and things are improving.

With the housing market picking itself off the floor in the last 6 months the talk at our house has already started about possible trying to sell again and get into something bigger that makes better since for our family. With the finished lower level it's hopefully going to bring a different set of buyers to the table as we can now sell it as a 3 bedroom. With 1500SQ/Ft of living space it seems that it should be more attractive to potential buyers. Also the builders now in the neighborhood are putting up more and more homes of our size on postage stamp size lots…with cheaper materials and much less quality. That should help us hopefully. We have lots of must haves for the next house and not entirely sure that we will stay in St. Charles. More to come on this topic as the winter winds down.

As far as BBQ is concerned… I have not had much time to get into it with everything that went on this year. It was a pretty busy summer for us and spare time has been at a minimum. I still grill out at least 3 times a week but there is still something special about an all day cooking event….You do need people to eat it however and time to sit back and enjoy it. Something I have noticed is that Lowes and Home Depot tend to not stock charcoal in the winter months which is nuts. For our family there is never an off season of grilling. Rain, Sleet Snow or any other weather event is fair game. I think possibly Christmas Ribs are on the menu this year.

 

 

I put the camper to bed for the winter this week after a much more active Season that I expected. I along with a few other friends went back to KC a few weeks ago to attend the fall race at Kansas Speedway. It was a good time and the drinks were poured heavy. It was nice to do something for myself for a few days…again not much time to do those sorts of things anymore. The racing was a bit more entertaining this race than in April but the night time enterintment was a bit less in the campground this time. Not as much rowdy parties and what not. This could be as the Fall race is more a family oriented event as I learned. We rented scanners to add to the experience and it was well worth it. I anticipate that I will be buying season tickets and the camp spot again next season. I also took the rest of the week off of work and stayed home for the first time ever. Typically when I take vacation time it is to go somewhere and being at home with Sam, Max and Ali was actually up there with one of the better vacations I have had. I was able to spend time with the kids without a schedule or Sunday night approaching as it always does. We went to the Zoo, Bowling and the pumpkin patch along with our final weekend of camping at Cuiver River State Park. I really like that place as its only 45 minutes from home and it feels like a world away. Sam is really getting into it too…it's good to see.

A Weekend In The Woods

First off I want to say we had a blast. It was so nice to get away from reality…no cartoons, ipad games, Disney movies, work emails, phone calls and so on. We went to Cuvier River State park about 45 minutes North West of St. Louis. The campsite itself has about 50 full hook up sites and a handful of electric sites and the majority are basic. With the exception of the full hookup sites, most sites are well shaded and spread apart.  Our site #001 was literally right next to the playground…obviously this was a big hit with Sam.  It was also very well shaded and set back a ways from the neighboring sites. The only negative was that the trees were so close….Deploying the awing was not possible.  

One of the biggest things I realized….it’s a lot of work. It rained early Sunday morning and due to the current drought while it was welcome it was a huge mess. The dirt had become a fine powder making the otherwise friendly earth into a slip and slide of fine slurry. Everything that was outside became so dirty that it was banned from the inside of the camper and thrown in the back of the truck for cleaning at a later date.  Sam did great during the set up and tear down. This was the time that I was most concerned about… how I would get it done without him melting down. I left him strapped into his seat (Truck running and A/C on of course) and he didn’t make a peep.

I have become a big fan of the Missouri state park system. Every park we have visited has been  very nice and well kept. There are some things that you do need to account for at most of the parks….very few of them have full hookups so water conservation is key.  The website www.mostateparks.com  is very nice and easy to navigate. They even show photos of the actual camp site to get a better feel for what you are after.

All in all we had a great time and I look forward to the next trip.