Thursday, June 26, 2014

Old Kayaks SOLD!!!

Good News, after less than a week on Craigslist, we sold our old Kayaks. Good news is, we sold them for what we paid for the new ones and twice as much as we paid for them new!!!

Other than that, no real news to brag about, so we'll make this a short entry, just really happy we recouped our outlay for the new Kayaks. Now if the wind would quite blowing like crazy here in OKC we'd love to get them out on the water. Ok, until next time..................................

Monday, June 23, 2014

2014 Tinker AFB Air Show

 This weekend was the Tinker AFB Air Show, and while we didn't go to the show itself, we had pretty good viewing from the Base RV Park. You may ask, why didn't you go to the show since you were right there? Well after 24 years in the Air Force and physically working 24 Air Shows we just had no desire to fight the crowds. We do however still enjoy watching the USAF Thunderbirds and Navy Blue Angels fly. It's been awhile since I've seen the Thunderbirds so I wanted to get some shots of them, all the pictures you see here were taken while sitting outside the RV here at the park.



 As with most airshows, several vintage aircraft performed.

 Check out the flames on this MIG as it rounded the park.

 The Air Forces Parachute Team jumped in.

 This guy came low enough to count the rivets on the plane.



Of course the Thunderbirds stole the show. If you'd like to see more airshow photos, click on the link to our Flickr Gallery on the right side of the page.

We still have a couple of weeks to go here in OKC before the next leg of our adventure continues, but until then we have things to keep us busy here. So until we meet again....................................

Friday, June 20, 2014

Life around the Famcamp or lack there of it.

 Life here at the Tinker AFB Famcamp has been unusually quiet for this time of year, compared to past ones. Just a couple of us that are here for a few weeks or longer and the occasional one or two nighter. We were taking to the Camp Host and she was saying, last years tornados that hit the OKC area really scared people off, with most of them saying they will not return here during the spring/summer tornado season. However we have been enjoying the empty park, not so much traffic or noise, just peace and quiet. Yesterday a gentleman came in with this very cool 1982 Airstream Motorhome. One of those classic RV's you don't see very often. He just started his fulltime adventure in it and wants to pick our brains about the lifestyle (not that there's much to pick) since we've been doing it for a few years now.

Sheryl has been getting in all the grand baby time she can, in between appointments and getting things done. Little Ellie is 3 months old now, growing like a weed and beginning to develop her own little personality, quite the cutie she is.

We do have a few more things going on and to take care of while we here, but we are looking forward to getting back to travelling. We've decided to head towards Colorado for the next couple of months in what may be a feeble attempt to beat the summer heat up at higher elevations. Seems with the climate changes, even the normally cooler areas are getting hotter, same as the normally warm wintering areas are getting cooler, but we'll give it a whirl, if nothing else it'll be beautiful scenery.

The Tinker AFB Airshow is this weekend so we're going to stay put here in the park as the rest of the base may be a mad house. So until next time, take care and we'll see you right back here.........

Monday, June 16, 2014

Out With The Old and In With The New (Kayaks that is)

 I've finally come to the conclusion (as much as I've fought it over the years) that the ole body ain't what it used to be. Between my back, neck and now right arm along with Sheryl's back, tossing the kayaks up and down off the roof of the Jeep is not as easy as it once was. So, it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our old faithful Mainstreams. They have served us well over the years, but at 50 lbs. and 11.5 feet they have become a little much to handle out of the water.

We now welcome into the family our new Pelican Maverick kayaks, they are 1.5 feet shorter and 15 lbs. lighter.  The difference in moving them around is amazing, so much lighter and manageable. We have not had a chance to get them in the water yet, but are really looking forward to it.
The Mainstreams are up for sale and we should be able to get as much as we paid for the new ones out of them, so pretty much break even, can't ask for much better than that.
We are still here in OKC for a couple of check up appointment, Sheryl's first appointment went well, she just has one more, to go over the results. We are thinking about heading west to the Southern Colorado/Northern New Mexico area to ride out the summer heat at the higher elevations. We still have a couple of weeks to decide and nail down a loose plan before we take off.
The new kayaks are the big news of the week and of course Sheryl has been getting in all the grandbaby time she can with Ellie before we take off. So until next time, we'll see you fine folks back here again..................................

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Topeka Wedding

 We have been without or had very slow internet service this last week while here in the farmland of NE Kansas. That being said it was kinda nice. We arrived at our home for the week, the Brides house and driveway boondocked for the week. The view we had was nice, peaceful and very quiet, especially at night. We arrived a few days early to help out with getting the wedding set up and to visit with everyone as they came in.

 In between all the hustle and bustle, this was our hangout. The house in the distant is the closest neighbor and at night you can only see two lights any where you look.

 The wedding went off without a hitch, just as all brides like them to go. Breanna was beautiful as you would expect and the wedding party made for some nice pictures.

 The ceremony was Catholic, which was an experience for us as Sheryl and I had never seen one. They are much more elaborate and longer than other religions we had been to.

 They were married and one their way to the reception, after more pictures were taken of course.

 The couples first dance
 
 Sheryl as able to catch up with her siblings, Carol, George and Curtis.


 Everyone had a good time, both the kids and adults danced the night away.

We are back in OKC now after a quick stop for the nigh in Wichita. We both have a couple of check up appointments to attend to, so we'll be in town here for a couple of weeks. After that, where to, we haven't decided yet so we'll cross that bridge when the time comes.
Just a quick update on our time in NE Kansas and the wedding, so until next time, we'll see you back here soon...................

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Ft Scott, KS.

 Saturday we moved on up the road from the Springfield area to Nevada MO. Our original plan was to stay in Ft Scott KS. for a couple of days and visit the National Historic site there. However once we arrived we checked out the 2 RV parks in the area, neither of which were worth staying in. One was contained in the local city park, very nice except for the RV area and the other was a very run down old KOA out on the edge of town. After being disappointed in both we set our GPS to get us back into town and that's where the fun began. It seems the folks at Google do have a sense of humor when it come to route planning. So we had quite the tour of backroads/dirtroads Kansas before running across a couple stopped at a little stream crossing who gave us proper directions back into town. By then we were a frazzled and just wanted to stop for the night, we ended up coming back over into MO. to the nearest real RV park......whew, what a day!!!

 After a day off from doing much of anything (except laundry) Monday we headed over to visit the Ft Scott National Historic Site. Ft Scott was one of several forts built in the 1800 as our country grew and folks started to head west. This fort was built mainly to keep the peace between the various Indian tribes that were relocated to the Kansas area. It was also used in the Civil War as a training base for the Union.
Once again the Nation Park Service did a great job in preserving this old historic site. The main Welcome Center is the old hospital.

 Up stairs from the Welcome Center is a replica of the how the hospital would have looks in it's day.


There are several buildings within the grounds, all very well preserved and the grounds themselves well manicured. After our time at the site, we headed back to the RV park via Wal Mart for some much needed supplies. While at Wal Mart we took a look at some of their new computers, seems our 10 year old ones are beginning to show there age with one crashing already. We were surprised to see a pretty good selection at very good prices and a couple at prices we just couldn't pass up! So we left the store with a bouncing new baby Dell laptop to bring home. This is so much nicer having a new fast computer that actually works.....ahhhhhh.
Today we are off to Topeka, KS to attend one of Sheryl's nieces wedding this weekend. She offered to let us park at here house with electric and water, so we'll see how that goes when we get there. So until next time....................................