Bugs, Mouse, Snake, Frozen Filter, 14° Wind Chill, Plastic in Water Line, Covid…But Other Than That…! :)

But Other Than That…it was nice. HAHA

 After spending a great time with our niece and her family (see last week’s post) we heading to Kevin’s brother’s house. The sad thing is, he and his wife got Covid last week. We weren’t sure how long they would be sick. We were still invited to park on their property and since we were scheduled to be there for 2 weeks we all hoped they would feel up to visiting before that time was up.

Kevin noticed the water hose was hooked up but with little water pressure from the spigot outside. He decided to fill up our fresh water tank and then turned off the water spigot. Also, this will help in case it gets cold and the hose freezes. (Stay tuned!)

After getting HOWE (our name for our 5th Wheel) all set up, Kevin and I drove the few miles to town to the little grocery store. And I mean, tiny store. But they have some good items in there…I found some more spice cake mixes! A few days ago I had texted our sister-in-law to give me a list of grocery items and we would stop at the store for her. We paid, loaded up the grocery cart and then took it out to the truck. Soon the clerk came out and said something to Kevin. (I am deaf and didn’t know what she was saying to him.) Apparently, you aren’t suppose to take the carts out of the store! Oops. She said she would have called the bag boy to help carry things out but she didn’t know where he was…”and that is normal”. HAHAHA We have never heard of such a thing as not being able to take a cart to your vehicle. On the way home we tried to figure why they have that rule. No clue.

Don’t feel bad for Kevin: With the sunlight starting and the sun almost up, the temp was 24° with a feels like temp of 14° Burrr!!!! The high temp that day was 42°. The next day was near the same. Where was Kevin those two days? On the beach in California – sunny and warm! 🙂 Well, he was in a conference center for work but still…. 🙂

Kevin and I were out on a walk down the gravel country road. He asked me how far we are walking. I said when he is 1/2 way tired, we will turn around. 🙂 Then suddenly, he stops, and looks down, and signs something. Of course, guess what I thought he saw???? I scream and run the other way! He said he was “tired” and signing it and we should turn around. Haha It was all a joke but man did I take it to be a snake in the road. 🤪🤪🤪

But later…

Kevin’s two brothers, our two sisters-in-law and us sat outside in camp chairs. The weather was very breezy but temps were in the 70s. This way we could all visit together without passing germs. It was nice to catch up with each other and have good laughs at times gone by. Kevin did a great job as American Sign Language interpreter for me, since I am deaf. Suddenly, we see a snake slithering right in the center of our large circle! Thankfully the guys jumped into action and took care of it. Creepy and definitely no picture was taken to show you!!!

I was hungry for El Nopal Mexican Restaurant in Bethany. The white queso for chips and over the chimi still has my mouth watering! A few days ago I texted our niece to see if they wanted to meet us there sometime. Yes, Sunday at 12:30 PM. We had a lovely lunch with them. Our niece’s husband is a volunteer firefighter. Last night there were several fires; he fought one that was started by a farmer burning ditches. Sadly, the fire spread to a neighbor’s farm and burned the corn. After lunch, Kevin and I drove to what used to be Missions Outreach. When Kevin was growing up it was a training center for high school kids to go for about 3 weeks. They were usually going off to desolate places so they would sleep on the ground, in a tent, having to learn rustic living. Some would be trained in helping spiritually and others were trained in how to build a building. At the end, there was a big commissioning service in a barn/building, aptly named “The Tabernacle”. Kevin remembers attending some of those. Then his dad would often help drive people to the airport in the Youth For Christ bus he had purchased. We drove the country roads to it. The name has changed and the grounds are used for big-name Christian concerts, that draw in 5-10,000 people. Plus camps and church retreats, etc. As we entered, we saw a large water slide. Kevin started laughing and I said, “Yeah, ya really ‘roughed it here’, right?!” He said the water slide wasn’t there when he was growing up. 🙂 We drove down to the pond and Kevin explained what was there, and over there, and back there. It was fun to see his description from all those years ago. Soon a guy drove up to us in a car and got out. Kevin quickly told him he had been here when growing up. They had a great conversation of how things were and are now and people they knew. He said there is a small RV campground on the property and if they don’t have a group and it isn’t full, we are welcome to stay there. That was really nice. Such a great stop.

From there we heading on just any road we saw, mostly dirt roads. We saw farms, farm houses, churches, tiny, struggling towns, and more. In one area we passed an old church and cemetery on a hill. We stopped there and walked around. We didn’t look at all the headstones but we did find one that was exciting. We found a grave of someone who was born in 1815! That is the oldest we have found on our travels, so far. I figured out the first name of Margaret and the last name of Allenbrand. I looked her up on findagrave.com and wow, wow, wow! She was born Nov 3, 1815 in Germany. The headstone, standing tall and erect, says, “Margaret Allenbrand, died Jan 27, 1892, aged 77 yrs (and a number not readable) M.” From Findagrave.com we read about her husband. He was “the owner of a fine farm of 260 acres.” We got such a chuckle out of “fine farm” and now as we drive past a farms, we have to say, “it was a fine farm…”. LOL

We drove around the greater Kansas City area. We always find it a beautiful drive along the Missouri River river bottoms. We were able to meet up with some lifelong friends of ours. They took us to Arthur Bryant BBQ. Great visiting and great food!

Around all these farms are current bugs called Asian Beetle. They look like Lady Bugs (which are so cute). However, from lots of research we found they bite, if you go after them they leave a fluid that is their blood and stains everything orange, and if you kill them they stink. Great! They got in HOWE. The are on the ceilings and windows. Kevin would walk around with masking tape and sticking the bugs to it. Hundreds. Later the outside walls of HOWE were covered. When it got so cold last week I didn’t see too many. But it warmed up and we were invaded. Not kidding. We went to several places in town to look for a blue bug light and finally found one at Sutherlands. Kevin taped it on top of the slide ledge inside and it  seemed to help, at least it sort of drew the bugs in that direction. But it didn’t really work with them. You can’t read on your iPhone or iPad in bed at night because they go to the light. With them invading us Kevin got out the Dustbuster vacuum and started sucking them in.

Mice: I absolutely hate (I guess everyone does). I can’t even look at the “evidence” they leave behind. Thankfully Kevin was home from California! Went to town and bought mouse traps, mouse stick-things, and peppermint oil to spray around. (Kevin read online that detracts them.) The next morning we had one in the trap. Since then, we haven’t caught one and don’t see evidence. That night we washed, cleaned and sanitized everything! Kevin found a large hole under the kitchen island where plumbing came up through to the sink. He filled the hole with a piece of plywood and Great Stuff Foam.

Farm equipment in Missouri. Thank you, Farmers!!!!

A few days later even though the temps were in the 40s in late morning, the sun was shining and no wind. Our sister-in-law felt better and she and I went to her Sewing Hut. We did some sewing, well, I actually only sewed about 9 seams because we were so busy visiting! Love it. I really enjoyed our chat.

Our last day there. After work Kevin and I sat outside. The day was nice for a sweater. I texted our sister-in-law and said that they could join us outside if they were up to it. Soon they come trudging along and sat in the driveway for a short visit. It was sad that we didn’t get to have lots of visiting time due to Covid. We were thankful to be parked surrounded by the beautiful farm lands and rolling hills of Missouri. Until next time.

Next time: On the road again, and plastic found.