The American Dream

Its all coming to head....we are closing in on two weeks from the day I never thought would come. We are set to close on Friday September 27th!!! While this is very much exciting its also extremely stressful for some reason. First off a early morning meeting to address warranty concerns then off to the title company. From there its back to the house to wait for the movers...meet them at the storage lot. Back to the house....wait on the bed delivery and new living room furniture to show up. Its going to be a long, long day. Its going to be so worth it...and not to mention all the stuff that is at my moms and brothers. I have not seen my Trusty Weber Grill since May 5th.....its a bit sad really. Hard to imagine a summer without it!

Here is a Photo for a tug at the heartstrings.

Yesterday I was able to sneak in the house and poke around...its seems that they still have lots to do. It must be a mad rush at the closing laps as technically the house should be finished on the 24th in time for the walk through. We are still missing a window and a bit of siding, soffets and gutters. On the inside, the cabinets have gone in and counter tops are soon to follow. Trim is done....doors are being hung today. All the vanity's are in the bathrooms. Appliances are in the garage along with all the plumbing fixtures and lights. I am just amazed how things come together at the very end.

Truck is still in the shop for an unknown knock in the engine....the rental car I have sucks and the camper is out of commission due to the hub issue. Life is great.

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?