Two Rivers SRA

So much for hopping, maybe more like crawling. We spent the last week in Two Rivers SRA outside Omaha, NE.....and that's it. At first it was because it was such a nice park, with five campgrounds, five fishing lakes, a swimming lake and lakeside camping under a huge shade tree, then it was because our engine repair work isn't done yet. Ugh. We had to take the *new* welder in to Linweld because it wouldn't start anymore, and since we took it in on a Friday naturally we had to wait until Monday to hear anything, so we ended up spending the weekend. Then on Sunday the Omaha Herald delivered complimentary copies of their Sunday paper and inside was a coupon for free camping on the third if we pay for two, so I think we stayed nine days total. We are getting mighty slow in our old age.

Supposedly they found bones willing digging at the job site in OK where we were going so that's been postponed, another reason for our laziness, we no longer have anywhere to be.

This was our backyard:

Why would we want to leave?
I was hoping to get a family portrait while we were here, but no one was cooperating. I got one shot, and four dirty looks, and ended up with this:

It was actually much worse but after some editing at least I got a decent current family shot. Then the next day the kids were all for it once I saw them playing in a tree that hung out over the lake. After a group shot with their choice of seating, then they wanted individuals. Joey was busy building a new bike rack for his motorcycle since he never got back his original one after lending it out. I would have loved a family shot in there!


The boys fished quite a lot, especially Jonas. This is the first time that they fished completely on their own, and they both caught fish! We didn't see Jake's but evidently it was HUGE. Jonas caught a small bluegill and kept it in his bait bucket for a while to play with, before also letting it go.

Jonas is also on his third week of not eating meat. I had a feeling he'd turn vegan, but not this soon! He's only eight! All I cared about at eight were Barbies and ice cream. It's bringing about more challenges for me in terms of finding him enough variety, but it's also making me more aware of what I'm eating and what I'm feeding my family. I know I can do better. I will do better. Any kid favorite vegan dishes would be greatly appreciated. :) Right now he's eating mostly raw: fruits, veggies, cheese, nuts and granola. As soon as I can find veggie burgers, he'll try those. So far it's been impossible to find in these small NE towns.

When they weren't fishing, we'd go for bike rides or over to the swimming lake.


I even got the key to one of the nine or so train cabooses that they have for rent. They're completely restored and made to sleep six. It's probably one of the biggest draws to this park and it was especially cool for us because it's an identical caboose to the one we just explored a month ago, that wasn't restored. They call it Caboose Park.


I also discovered mobile web here. Joey's had it on his phone for months, and never uses it, anyway I was so worried about Kathy and Family that I tried to see if I could get to their site form his phone, and I did! It was so cool! Doesn't take much for me. We can't manage to get our Internet satellite to work so the next job we go on I'm going to have to call someone out to set it. We don't even try anymore, so it was nice to find the www and read my mail. I miss reading my favorite blogs, and I feel bad that I never acknowledge comments I receive. I want to, I really do. I love getting comments, and I even got a couple award things. I appreciate them so much, and one day I will give a post worthy response, until then, know I really really love them! Thank you!

Bunch more pictures over here!

Fremont Lakes SRA

Our first stop was the nearest state recreation area, about an hour East. Perusing the Nebraska State Parks book we noticed a whole cluster of parks within hours of eachother, so my plan is to go park hopping. We used to do that with city parks when we lived in a stick house. We'd spend the whole day driving from town to town playing on their playgrounds and nature parks. It was a great way to see the country.......and that's what I'm all about.

Fremont Lakes looked and sounded great, but we weren't that impressed when we first pulled in. After parking and then walking down to one of the twenty small lakes I found a much better spot.

Now instead of only staying one night, we decided we'd do a couple extra. A couple extra turned into a whole week. It was so nice and peaceful, the heat wave is definitely keeping other campers away. We spent most of our time inside the air conditioning but there was still plenty of time for wildlife.

The kids tried desperately to catch a bullfrog, but it just wasn't meant to be. I did find a HUGE praying mantice at the gas station and had the attendent box it up for me so I could take it back to the kids. This is right before he jumped on my camera and my fingers and I threw them across the picnic table.

He was at least six inches long.

The sunset reflecting on the lake


From a distance the lakes appear to have algae covering the edges, but up close it looks like little empty shells, some of them even have eerie faces.


Overall, it's an OK park to kick back, relax and fish.

Forever in Columbus

While heading to Columbus I called the Chamber of Commerce for a campground recommendation and she referred us to North Lake, which not only had playgrounds and two lakes, it was also.....FREE. Too bad I ended up getting whatever it was that Joey had that kept us from going to Des Moines, though. I got so sick I stayed in bed for three days forcing us to stay longer than expected, plus I had to endure a few I told you so's. By the following Monday we were able to take the bus in to the mechanic, while we did lunch and laundry. With still more time to kill I suggested going shopping....what else is there to do?
I was lucky enough to score cute new bathing suits (Goodwill, natch) for Jewel and myself, so along with the boys suits that were in the clean laundry we were able to spend the rest of the day at the local waterpark. Once the bus was done (it wasn't needing a new power steering pump after all, just a smaller belt and some tightening of screws) we left to go get it with plans of going back to the waterpark, but as soon as the bus, and Joey, pulled away I got back in the truck to follow and it wouldn't start! Of course I had Joey's cell phone on me so I had to chase after the bus flailing my arms in the air looking like some deranged girlfriend whose boyfriend just left her.

All of this is happening in the middle of a severe heat wave, where we can hardly breathe because of all the humidity. Not fun. We managed to get the truck to start to only die a few blocks away, but luckily it was in a hotel parking lot that just happened to have RV electric hook ups. The Ford dealer can't get us in for a week so while we wait to get in Joey decided to try different things. He disconnected the alternator and battery, which are only six months old so I'm convinced he's wasting his time and energy, and took them up to have them tested, and in order to prove me wrong, they said the alternator was bad. They exchanged it for a more powerful one and recharged the battery and only charged us $14. I was expecting to really throw down some cash for all these repairs and combined we only spent $130. What are we gonna do with all the money we saved? Why, go camping of course!

Leaving Stepford Wivesville

I'm watching Joey load up all our gear. He got the motrocycle loaded, the bikes and lastly he's working on the satellite dishes, all while I sit here in the park and avoid anything that looks like work. We didn't make it to Des Moines, much to my heartache, and we're still not exactly sure where we're going, but we are leaving. We'll go to Columbus first to hopefully find a new power steering pump for the bus and once it's fixed we'll be heading for, tada.....the nearest lake. Big surprise.

Jonas had his eigth birthday on Monday and we planned on going to a waterpark or miniature golfing, the rain wouldn't allow it. Instead he wanted to get his ears pierced.

He has his eye on some spider earrings he saw a while back, until then he'll make do with the black cz. He's well aware of the slack he may get, but he doesn't care. :)

I forgot to mention that Johnny and family came out to visit last Friday. They were our first overnight guests and I think they slept OK. The highlight for me was to bare witness to the family's first ever sightings of Firefly's! It was like seeing fairies!

We figured out we've been here 30 something days and had over thirty visitors! Of course the bus was only clean for about three of them, too. That's a lot of company for people who don't entertain much.

Road Medical

The last day we were in Flaming Gorge I noticed small red bumps all over Jonas' legs. The next day we wake up in Wyoming and there's more bumps, looking a lot like bites. By afternoon they're up his back. I immediately think bed bugs and throw his mattress in the dumpster and all his bedding in the wash. He still has all the bumps by the time we get to Lake McConaughy, but other than itching like crazy, he has no other symptoms. According to my home medical guide he has Chicken Pox! Sure enough in a couple days Jewel has bumps all over her back and legs. They look like mosquito bites that turned crusty. By the time we get here and they jump in the city pool the first day, they've all dissappeared. Jacob never got anything, no one was ever feverish, and the itch was pretty easily controlled with Benadryl.....and not one scar. I still don't know what they had, but I'm thinking they just got vaccinated naturally. Did we really get away that easy for such a dreaded disease?

Whatever it was, Jonas got the memory foam mattress for his bunk he'd been wanting.

Jinxed

Crap, now Joey's thinking he may not want to go to the job in Iowa, and just stay here until we go to OK. I knew as soon as I told the Internets, that it wouldn't happen. Dammit. I'll know more by the middle of the week.

In the meantime Jewel and I got new haircuts:

Hers was self done with a pair of small scissors right to the center of her bangs. Not much unlike she does EVERY summer.

Mine was professionally done.

In a way that would allow my hair to grow out the best. We also ran into a Goodwill the other night and I scored with five new outfits, all a size or two bigger than my old stuff, but at least now everything fits and I don't feel fat coming out of every seam. Nice, bigger clothes make me feel skinnier. I'll just cut off the tags and destroy the truth.

************************************************************************

I'm working on a post to answer a lot of questions I've been receiving, if you've been wondering something...now's the time to ask. :)

Traveling and Socialization

Tomorrow we'll have been here four weeks. That's about max for us. We were planning on leaving soon for a rig job in Oklahoma anyway, when yesterday morning Joey gets a call wanting him in Iowa to do some rebuild work at a Cargill plant, also with his welding rig. OK calls and says it's postponed until the end of August and Iowa says he can stay for as little or as long as he likes.....oh yeah, Des Moines here we come!!! I can't freakin believe we actually got a call out of the blue for DSM. I get to see all my girls! I mean, beautiful unschooling mothers, that make me laugh my ass off...in other words, my friends. I literally cannot get this grin off my face.



Seeing other unschooling kids couldn't be coming at a better time either. Everyone that doesn't homeschool is always worried that kids that do homeschool won't get "socialized" somehow. Isn't that funny how those that don't worry about those that do? And that pertains to a lot of things in life, not just schooling. Anyway, the last month the kids have been playing with a lot of kids, a lot more than they're used to. At Lake McConaughy Jonas had an encounter with a little boy that wouldn't stop calling him a girl, yet Jake was friends with this kid. The last night there he(Jonas) met a friend and teared up when I told him we were leaving the next day. He said he made plpans to meet his friend the next night. By the next morning Jonas had forgot all about it and we happily moved on. Whew. Now we're here in small town Nebraska where everybody and their dog knows eachother. Girls quickly gather around the boys at the pool and they make fast friends with a pair of sisters. I notice right off the bat a gang of tween boys that can't do anything for themselves without their leader telling them how to do it. I'm happy the boys found nice girls to play with. The lifeguards have also fallen in love with the boys by now. They tell them they want to be their girlfriends and date them. Now the other boys are starting to take notice and try to befriend Jacob. They include him in their stupid game of chicken and immediatley Jake doesn't like their rules, and won't play their way. He won't flip off the diving board and these boys are trying to make him. He calls them freaks and jumps off. The next time they're all at the pool together Jake makes friend with a different boy and this gang comes and tells the boy not to be friends with Jake, and by the way Jake, tell your mom short hair is in so you need a haircut. Jake stands up for himself and heads to the boards, where ELEVEN boys now proceed to throw balls at him while he's twelve feet in the air. His lifeguard girlfriends kick all eleven hometown boys out of the pool for the rest of the summer!

How's that for socialization? I felt horrible I wasn't there to protect him, but so thankful the lifeguards were watching out for them. It was sad to think that if my kids were in school with those boys, they could have turned out the same way. They can have their competition, greed, narcissism, and feeling of entitlement, we'll keep our peace, love, respect, compassion and empathy, and we'll be gone by next week.

If you stay in the Fairgrounds....

The Fair may just come to town. What are the odds? We are actually here for the County Fair, and my kids just happen to have never, I know never been to a Fair. This one even happens to be .....free gate! How do I get so lucky?

We went to the stock car races on Friday night and quickly learned that I DO NOT like the races. Besides the fact that they were excruciatingly LOUD, it's B.O.R.I.N.G. Then my butt revolted against the metal benches. Going home and doing dishes sounded like more fun, and Jewel was right there with me. We left the boys on their own.


Saturday was actually the first day of the Fair, we didn't check it out until Monday, but were treated to a concert by Trent Wellman on the first night, without even leaving our yard. I don't know who he was, but he sounded really good. We also saw some of the beauty pageant winners, and since Jewel has been saying lately she wants to be in a pageant, I asked her if she wanted me to put makeup on her. Of course she wanted to! It was a little tricky getting the mascara on, but she was happy with the results.


Monday while the boys were swimming Jewel and I decided to check out the Fair to see the animals. First thing we see when we get there is this Wildlife Encounters presentation going on. It ended up being a not for profit organization that takes rescues exotic animals, and they brought a bunch of them with them. We barely sat down to watch the show when I got called up on stage to be a volunteer......I was not volunteering, but I couldn't say no, so I put down my camera and went up. Then they brought out a bear cub, and I was to feed him! It was pretty neat feeding the bear, but I hated being on stage. Then when I got back down the teenage girl next to me said

I hope you don't mind but I took some pictures of you with your camera while you were up there.

Mind? I wanted to adopt her.



They also brought with them a swimming pool full of alligators and for just five dollars they'll take a lovely polaroid of you with the gator after you've caught it. We've got to get the boys for this, so we leave and wander to the kids barn where Jewel loved up on some more baby chicks. If you ask her what her favorite activity is she'll tell you it's "petting baby animals". In fact if you meet her, don't be surprised if she asks you what your favorite activity is...Just so she can tell you hers.

We came back later with the boys and headed straight for the gators. The boys got right in and quickly caught their gators. They were a little hesitant at first because they all scattered to the bottom of the pool which meant they were harder to get to. Jonas went for the only one that didn't have it's mouth taped up, and Jake went for a mid sized one.

They were ecstatic! They were high for hours after that and immediately want to do it again. Instead we walk around the midway and buy a family pack of tickets for the rides. That family pack got us all on ONE ride. One. One ride that nearly gave me whiplash and almost resulted in tetanus shots for the boys. It was fun, but what a rip off.

The next day is Kids Day so we go a little earlier because Jewel wants to wrestle a gator now, and we want to beat the crowds. That's funny if you've ever been to a small town fair. Beat the crowds, that's about 20 kids. Anyway, Jewel wanted a gator and since I'm paying for the lovely polaroid, all three kids can go in at once, and I'm allowed to take as many pictures as I want, and they'll take their one polaroid. Good deal if you ask me. Jewel catches her gator after just a short time.

He may look tame here, but he was a wiggler. She held on tight though and wouldn't let him go. The boys went for the biggest alligators in the pool.


The only problem withthat was they were too heavy for them to pick up once they caught them! Gator Jim helped them lift one up so they could get their photo.

We watched another one of the animal shows, and this time Jake got called up on stage.

To have an African Serval stand on his back.
For another donation the kids had their picture taken with the world's smallest fox, one that not one of us can remember the name of.


We waited an hour and a half to get Jewel's and Jonas' faces painted.

To just go to the pool afterwards and have it all wash off.

Today's the last day of the fair so we'll be going back to use up all the free ride tickets they gave us on Kids Day. What a nice way to enjoy the fair. We can go for just thirty minutes to see something, instead of being there all day really wearing ourselves out. We get to enjoy it a little at a time, that's nice.

Life is good.

Nebraska, tastes a lot like Iowa

Nebraska is so lovely this time of year. I think what attracts me most to the midwest is the sheer vastness of green. Growing up mostly in deserts, I never seem to get enough of bright green rolling hills of grass, especially with little black cows dotted all over the countryside.

I have this picture set as my desktop. Doesn't it kind of remind you of the original Windows background?

Anyway, it's a good time to be in Nebraska, and we couldn't have picked a better place to be right now. Joey's work is with a company he enjoys working for, and it's less than two miles away. He's not using his welder on this job so someone else picks him up in the morning, brings him back for lunch, and then back to work and home again. This means I get the truck everyday, but of course, I don't even need it here. The campground isn't the most ideal:

But having multiple playgrounds and a swimming pool as our front yard, leaves little room to complain. Our backyard is also the fairgrounds which hosts car races every friday night. Last week we watched them from our campspot:

We talked about going inside to watch tonight, so we'll see.

We bought a family pass to the pool, so the boys are able to come and go as they please, but Jewel has to wait for me to take her. If she could swim without floaties she'd be able to go with the boys, until then I'm forced to go and lounge around poolside, leaving all chores behind, while absorbing the sun and getting a deep dark healthy tan. Meanwhile, the bus needs a good scrubbing. But hey, I'm tan!

Even the local Museum is in walking distance. It is, however, like most small town museums, pretty boring. Jake thought it was awesome, though, but I'm sure it's only beacuse they got free access to this old caboose:

He obviously wasn't thrilled to be sitting in an old school desk:


Lately Jewel's been wanting me to take pictures of her. Here she is on the porch of the old school house where she does her common "only one pose, and hold it for five minutes."

I'll take what I can get. Even if it includes her jumping in front of my camera while I'm trying to get a shot of the park.

Further proof that the best things come unexpectedly.

Lake McConaughy

We couldn't have asked for a better place to go and hang while we wait for our next job to "come to us". We found Lake McConaughy by looking at the Road Atlas for the nearest big body of water, with little tents around it. Lake McConaughy fit the bill, and then Joey remembered the mechanic in Ogallala from last year, when the bus broke down while he was picking it up after just buying it, telling him about this exact lake. The guy couldn't say enough good things about it, and Joey had always wanted to check it out, so we were very excited to get there. We've seen plenty of midwestern lakes, but we never expected to find what we did. It was Hawaii in the middle of Nebraska! We couldn't believe the white sand beaches, and so much of it, it was beautiful..to say the least. We first see the lake while going over the dam.

Lake McConaughy is on the left, while Lake Ogallala is on the right. The later lake was formed when all the dirt was dug up to build the dam, and is now a quiet little fishing lake with camping and lots of shade trees. This being our first time we went for the grand daddy lake, Big Mac.

We pulled in on Sunday afternoon, and after checking out both campgrounds with electricity we found our perfect spot, overlooking the land and the lake.

Most visitors to the lake camp right on the beach

Or under trees between the road and the beach, but the bus was way too heavy to even attempt it, plus the fridge stopped working on propane so we have to have electricty to run it, and with the heat, the A/C sure was nice. Not that we were ever in the bus anyway, but the campground also had a playground so every night the kids enjoyed the rare opportunity of playing with the dozens of other kids, so the RV park was worth it.

At the beach we enjoyed watching the many windsurfers,

kitesurfers and even a parasailer being pulled by a Jeep.


The next day I had to go into Ogallala for groceries, and to do laundry. Joey called the recruiter for one of the companies he works for but she's out until after the Fourth and according to her assistant the nearest job for him is in Wisconsin. So since it is a holiday week, and he most likely won't get sent anywhere right away we go ahead and pay for the whole week. Nothing but sand, sun and itty bitty surf..oh yeah.

After four days of sun in Flaming Gorge and six days on Big Mac you'd think we'd all be fried to a crisp, but nope, not one sunburn. Some days we would hike our tent down to the beach so we would get a break from the sun, and one day, from the flies. The boys would also rotate wearing their "surf" shirts. We rarely used sunscreen (just noses, cheeks & shoulders) and often avoided the sun until after 3 pm.


Everyone else couldn't get enough of the sand, and while I loved the feel of it under my feet on the beach, with it's soft and warm crystals, stepping on even one granual while barefoot in the bus would drive me batty!


I dealt with it by laying around some more.

And taking pictures of flowers hugging themselves.


Once while taking pictures on the beach I saw a baby bird emerge from the sand. It's like it came out of an old sand castle. I yelled for Jewel and she chased that sucker around the beach until she finally caught it. I didn't want to miss a second of it so I didn't get any photos or video of the actual hunt, but I did capture the love afterwards.

I think it was a seagull chick, whichg was another cool thing seeing seagulls in Nebraska, by the way. Lake Ogallala also had pelicans!

Almost every night we were treated to private fireworks displays, so we were expecting big things on the Fourth. There were some fireworks, but not the show I was expecting. We were also so burned out by the fourth that it was the one day we didn't even make it to the water. We tried visiting the Visitors Center so I could find out where all this white sand came from, but it had burned down, so I still don't know. I was also surprised by how quiet the lake was. This is the perfect party place. Then we find out why. Alcohol was banned last year, because it was too much of a party place. Worked out perfect for us.

I asked Jake for one picture, that's it, so he gave it to me.


Jonas didn't, but I took it anyway.


Often my pictures are a one shot chance, and I got lucky to get two such great pics. It does help to have two such great looking kids. Some day they'll thank me...I just know it.

When the surf was down, they had to make their own waves.

And sometimes we just took in the beauty and serenity.


Friday morning before we left I drove to the nearby (seven miles) trailer park so I could borrow their wi-fi and by the time I got back Joey had talked to the recruiter, Judy, and she listed off a hand full of jobs to Joey and told him he could take his pick. We left after a lunch of sandy burgers, to take a Nebraska byway called "Sandhills Journey". I may just learn where this sand came from!

In case you didn't get enough pictures, you can check out my slideshow here.

Nebraska, we're back

It's time to get serious about finding a job so we had to leave Flaming Gorge. If they'd have had electricity we would have set up our satellite and probably stuck around until they kicked us out, but they didn't, so we had to move on and leave their sunsets behind.


The town of Rock Springs, closest to the north, looks like a big dirt pit so we decide to check out Green River, WY, just to the west. It's not much better, but it'll do. As soon as we park I check for wi-fi and lo and behold, I've got a signal. Knowing that, we head to the river for some water play, and I'll attack the Internets later.

Only to find when we get back, the signal is gone. We tried for almost two hours to set up our satellite but even though we got a good signal (72) it would not connect to the NOC. I called up HughesNet and they said they're sending out a service tech, no longer than 3-5 days, it's most likely something with my modem. Now we're in the most expensive RV park we've ever been in, Tex's Travel Camp, it's over 100 degrees outside, the river is too gross for me to play in, and I have no Internet! Get me the hell outta here. Since it's now the weekend there's really no point in job hunting anyway but by the conversations Joey's had with fellow welders and a Super from his old company we pretty much know he can work in NE or ND, and they both sound like good options for me, so we decide to head that way. Chris, your jinx worked, I'm heading back your way!

Saturday we drove all day until we stop for the night just over the border in Nebraska, where we find a Cabela's campground. I didn't know Cabela's had campgrounds! And what a nice one. The kids played at the playground while we enjoyed the cool night breeze, and a leisurly stroll thru the boats while the salespeople were away. We got up early to go check out the store in the morning and ended up waiting almost an hour while the saleslady tried her damndest to find Jonas the Rainbow Trout oversized pillow that he desperately needed. In the end she couldn't find one, so he happily made do with a cute small sunfish, and I some fudge (which I hid from everyone).


We're off to go look for a large body of water to chill in until Joey actually goes to work.