More upgrades!

   Well, Tim ordered the Banks air filter system which claims to add 40hp.  We love the Banks Transcommand for the transmission--it made a world of difference keeping the transmission from locking up too soon on an upgrade. We are patiently awaiting the engine add-on to see if it increases
the horsepower. Eventually I think Tim will get the exhaust as well.
   We ordered a new Verlo mattress last night for the motorhome so we no longer have to haul the house mattress back and forth! The original one is worthless and we are anxious to go somewhere to see what a difference this new mattress makes.
   Slowly we are upgrading/fixing our MH to make it even better to travel.  Who knows, I might give in to Tim's idea of full-timing on the road!  Now if I can get him to put shelves in some of the cupboards and closets!

   Well, it's been 3 weeks and what a wonderful whirlwind vacation! We started out on May 23, 2012 driving to Mt. Vernon, KY. We found "Renfro Valley KOA" which was a great place, easy in/out, full hookups, clean and neat.  Definitely would like to venture back there sometime and spend more time checking out the area.
   We drove to Raeford, NC and found 4 little darlings waiting for us, plus our lovely daughter. We spent the next week and a half doing things around the area, and helping her with some things she needed to get done.
   We felt like we were playing basketball all the way down, with our two newly replaced front tires bouncing heavily.  Hubby took them off, once parked in daughter's driveway, and had them rebalanced by a Ford truck place.  He also replaced the front shocks as shown in pic below.

 

   We tried to schedule the refrigerator recall w/local Camping World dealer.  They wrote everything up and said they would check why it didn't work on electric.  After we called the next day, they told us it wouldn't be looked at until after the weekend---so, we picked it up untouched!  Why couldn't they have disclosed this when they wrote it up?  Since the refrigerator worked quite well on gas, we figured we could have it looked at closer to home. 
   This is the peak season for strawberries down there, so we went to a strawberry farm and pick 5 bucketsful to eat and freeze! Strawberry shortcake was so yummy.

   To honor Memorial Day and all those brave military that gave all, we went to the Airborne Museum in Fayetteville, NC.  It is quite humbling knowing each flag represented a brave soldier who gave all in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

   These four grandchildren are loving the "Power Rangers" so they all got outfits so they could be more believable characters.  What cuties!

   We had to have a few special treats, one of which was "Sweet Frogs" yogurt.  What a fun place.  You get your empty dish, go along the wall of yogurt and fill to your hearts desire.  Then you get to the toppings bar and fill it full of candies, toppings of all kinds, and enjoy!

   After a week parked in the driveway, we were getting anxious to try another camping spot.  Finally Tuesday, June 5th we headed for Myrtle Beach with the RV and daughter leading the way in her Expedition with the 4 kids, her and their dog, Gramma riding shotgun while Grampa drove the MH!

   This was not supposed to happen!  Daughter drove a bit too far off the road for a potty break!  Good thing we weren't towing and had the big V10 power!  We did make it to Myrtle Beach KOA.

We got our rig set up and daughter settled into a kamping kabin.

Quite expensive, but very nice campgrounds.  We walked to the beach and beat the storm back to camp.  I did wash at the camp laundry, kids played a bit in the gameroom.  We headed out the next day to the adorable mall, but unfortunately it rained most of the day.  Rain didn't hamper our spending spree though!  We went to the Ripley's aquarium and found it all to be very intriguing.  The divers were in with the sharks doing maintenance work.

      We left for our daughter's home and decided it was a good time to move on while the kids were still on a high from our beach vacation.  It is always so hard to leave our little ones as it is so long in between visits.  We love them all and miss them so much already.  We figured with our MH, we could possibly visit more often.

   We headed out for Concord, NC so hubby could go to Roush-Yates Racing and visit with his friends.  I found a campground called "Glenwood Acres" which is right across from the Charlotte Speedway.  We were beat and didn't even bother unloading the Escape.

   We headed out in the morning for Moorseville to stop at Roush-Yates Racing.  From there we headed to Asheville, NC for two nights.  We found "Bear Creek RV Park up in the mountains.  We were right off the curve in a pull-thru site.  Here we unloaded the Escape and ventured around.

   We drove around and checked out Asheville and get some milk and bread.  We headed out after two nights.  Our next stop was Goodletsville, TN which is right by Nashville.  We stayed at "Nashville County Park" which was a very nice facility.  Little did we know that it was the CMA awards celebration, so the park was full to the brim.

 

   We visited our friends the night we arrived and went to see our old F700 our friends were selling.  Boy we sure do miss that old girl and would love to have kept it and put a fifth wheel on it.  She still is a beauty.

      We headed to Kentucky for one more night of vacation.  We found a quiet campgrounds called "White Acres Campground" by Bardstown.  Nothing fancy, but full hookups and a pull-thru site.  We weren't sure about this campground or area, but once there, we decided this was a must to revisit!  

   

    We went to town and weren't impressed until our return trip in the morning and we found a beautiful part of the city.  There are historic sites to see, including a civil war museum/village.  This is the home of Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and other breweries.  Below is a picture of the warehouses that hold the barrels while they ferment.

      Since neither of us drink any alcohol, we weren't interested in a tour, but maybe when we return it might be interesting to see how it is made.  We have one more place we want to stay once and that is a wayside/rest stop.  We only used the bathrooms and made lunch here.

   We headed back on our long drive back to WI and our other two little grandchildren.  Although it felt good to be back home, we sure do miss being on the road in our old "Nellie" MH and can't wait to take her out again!  We are blessed to be able to be so close to our two grandsons and hope to go on a weekend soon with them and our son and daughter-in-law.  Aren't they adorable like the other four are?



Well, here is our new-to-us rig. Don't ask--of course it is a FORD!!!  It is a 2000 Coachmen Catalina, Ford F53 w/V10 Triton. We purchased this last year and used it once w/o using facilities as we knew nothing about it. We winterized it as we live in Wisconsin, bought a Tyvek cover for it and parked it on wood until this spring. We decided to take a 3-week trip for our 40th anniversary after Tim is done with teaching. Slowly we figured out the cheapest route to tow our Ford Escape was an aluminum trailer. Tim got busy and reinforced the frame and hitch, wired chasis for trailer brakes, installed a Banks Transcommand in tranny (what a difference), added d-rings in trailer, replaced clearance lights on coach, replaced headlights, and are awaiting the Banks Ottomind Programmer for engine. We had 2 new front tires put on, and will replace back 4 when we can.  Lots of small repairs and things to tweek are done.  Now we are having trouble w/the refrigerator, so tomorrow hopefully can get in to a repair shop and get it fixed as we want to leave on Tuesday.  Everything is packed except cold food, bed mattress (didn't like the one in there), and a few odds and ends. Can't wait to get on the road.  First destination is daughter's home where 4 anxious grandchildren will be waiting--can't wait. 

Towel Creations

Here are just a small sample of my cute hooded full-sized towels. 

Super Cute Hooded Kid Towels

Hopefully soon I can post pictures of some of my creations of kids hooded towels--they are super cute!

Cheesecake Recipes

Hopefully I can post my favorite cheesecake recipes on here. I am trying to figure out how this all works, so we will see.

It all began when we were teenagers. Ford came out with muscle cars like the Mustang. We, Tim and I, fell in love and somehow Ford took our wedding vows with us! We bought a brand new custom Ford F150. We drove it around for a few months, and then Tim decided to fix it up and drag race it. What a cool truck it was, wish we still had it. Then Tim and a friend bought a open-wheel modified, fixed it up, and of course, put in a Ford motor. We have been involved in open-wheel racing since. We started with a modified, our son then took over the driving, and we went midget racing, then sprint car racing. Hopefully we are on the wind-down and Tim will build a cool hot-rod street car, perhaps a Fairlane.