First Month Home ...

It's hard to believe that we have only been home for one month, as we seem to have done so much in such a short time. We are having the most amazing 'winter' weather, with all but three days since we have returned, being sunny and glorious. Nice cool nights, but days with highs around 18 - 22 C (64 - 72 F) if not warmer. Murray and I have had a lot of pleasure getting the garden back into shape. This has involved a tiny bit of pruning and weeding, but mainly feeding the garden beds, and planting vegetable and herb seedlings for another summer crop. A separate garden blog will follow in a few weeks when I have some progress photos for you. Murray has also been busy laying pavers at the side of the house - that side of the house only gets a small amount of sunshine, so no grass would grow there. It is the path he uses to get his lawnmover from the front to the back yard, so now he can push it along on a firm, unmuddied surface! We made a visit to a recycle nursery and were surprised to see some ducks or maybe geese ?? walking around the nursery. See photo below. You might have to click on the photo to maximise it and get the full effect. There was no gate, but they stayed inside the boundary.

Ducks running loose at nursery

I have enjoyed being reunited with my Thermomix (TM) = World's Smallest Kitchen, and one of my more recent cooking outcomes were the delicious beef curry puffs you can see in the photo below. The filling was made in my TM which I then put inside Pampas Puff Pastry to bake. They will be made again very soon! Yum. Tonight for dinner, I will make chicken and leek risotto in the TM. My friends Jenny and Leonie share photos of their TM outcomes with me, and vice versa. Between the three of us we are coming up with some fabulous meals and treats. Our menfolk are enjoying our endeavours.

Home made curry puffs

 Lunching with Leonie and Bron at Mt Tamborine

I have got back into my book club activity, and have also had numerous morning teas, lunches and dinners catching up with friends. Last week Murray and I picked my girlfriend Leonie, and we drove up to Mount Tamborine to have lunch and a catch up with my sister-in-law Bron. Murray dropped us off then he went and played 18 holes of golf. After a delicious lunch on a balcony overlooking the hinterland (photo above), we went back to Bron's house where we inspected her chook (hen) house and from 12 chooks, we collected 11 eggs. Not a bad effort!  

Bron and her 'girls'

Collecting eggs

Bron and Leonie with the egg haul

Jenny, Wilma with me at the Food and Wine Festival

Another girlfriend and her sister and I attended a recent Food and Wine festival here in Ballina. It was held at the Jockey Club at the Racecourse, and we had a very enjoyable few hours. It was $20 entry, and for that we were each presented with a glass (and neck holder pictured below) which was ours to keep. It was full of champagne on arrival, then we kept topping it up with various wine tastings and accompanied our drinks with a constant stream of food over the next few hours. Jenny's husband dropped us off at 1pm and we rang him at 3.30pm to come and collect us - we had eaten our fill, and the wine had made us sleepy. I was happy to return home for a nanna nap. Hang on, I'm not even a nanna - yet!

This weekend I attended an antenatal activity on the Gold Coast with another sister in law, and so I optimised the solo trip by spending two nights up there and catching up with several friends. I love being at home, so it takes a fair bit of an enticement to get me away these days. But the antenatal activity was definitely worth doing, so I am glad I packed my overnight bag and tore myself away from home. One night was spent at my sister Ret's, and the other at my girlfriend Jen's. Ret and I planned on having lamb shanks for dinner, but her husband Peter surprised us by bring home some tasty and appreciated appetisers: fresh Sydney Rock Oysters, smoked salmon and delicious king prawns. I should have taken a photo of the platter he prepared and bought out to us as we were sipping champagne on the outside patio - it was very impressive! Thanks Pete. We did end up having the lamb shanks, and they were delicious too. 

L-R Leonie, Jen, Caren, Ret with me at Thai Majik

Are you squirming yet Jan B? - All this food talk! As you can tell, most of my social activities are centered around morning tea, lunch or dinner - with the odd book club meeting or meditation session thrown in for good measure! On Saturday night Ret and I joined Caren, Jenny and Leonie (friends from our nursing days) at a Thai restaurant and had several enjoyable hours catching up on each others' lives. We have other friends on the Gold Coast that I am keen to catch up with, but I will have to wait until Murray is with me to visit them. Hopefully in the very near future...

After sitting having breakfast with Jen on her patio overlooking the canal, we got lost playing with our Mac laptops for several hours. Then I drove off to join brother Tony, wife Yudian and Ret and Peter for lunch at an outdoor patio of a local cafe. A last minute arrangement which worked out perfectly. From there I enjoyed a one on one session with a member of the Apple team, and sorted out a glitch on my iPhone - my iPhone's Spotlight search function had an issue - but to fix it, the tech had to completely erase the software and all content from my phone, reinstall it, then replace all my data (photos, calendar, contacts etc). Always a scary time, but having done a backup gave me confidence. While we waited for all of that to happen, the apple tech enjoyed seeing photos of Alaska, North Dakota and Arkansas on my laptop! He was prepared to issue me a brand new iPhone if the problem wasn't rectified, but thankfully it all worked out well. I drove 1.5 hours and arrived home at 6pm, just in time for Murray and I to walk to our local RSL club on the river, and sip a champagne as we waited for our meals to be served. Looking forward to next month. 

Impromptu birthday lunch for Yudian with Peter, Tony, Yudian, Ret and me

Home in Australia

On our last night in Kansas City we had a very pretty sunset - the clouds gave it a beautiful effect, but obviously I didn't capture it in all its glory. We had an uneventful trip home, thank goodness, which means there were no delays with our Qantas flight and our baggage made it safely to our destination. I got a free upgrade to Premium Economy which was great (thanks Benn) and sat next to a delightful lady (Mandy) from my birth town of Darwin. Mandy teaches computer classes at the university up there - something I wouldn't mind teaching if I had to go back to work. 

After our 15 hour flight home it was fantastic to be able to order a skinny flat white coffee as we waited for our connecting flight from Sydney to Ballina. Ahhh, the small things in life that we take for granted. Hard to find any coffee to match it in America. But then, they have their Starbucks which they prefer. 

Skinny flat white coffee - thinking of you Sandy!

We had only been away from home for 4 months this time, but the garden obviously missed our loving attention. Some tomato plants self seeded in our absence, and we came home to three flourishing tomato plants. Once Murray staked them up they looked more respectable. I have been picking and eating tomatoes since we got home. Obviously a mild winter here. 

Tomatoes growing wild

Tomatoes after Murray staked them up

Tomato harvest

Room decor for the big party

Within a few days of us arriving home, we were wrapped up in a wonderful family celebration which saw 40 adults and six young children celebrating my eldest sister Gemma's 70th birthday, and one of her daughter's 40th birthday. All six of her children attended from far and wide. It was also my sister Rose's birthday, plus brother-in-law Bill's and nephew Peter's birthday. Phew. I know I forgot a few, but there are too many to record here. Our cousin Margaret continued her tradition and baked and iced 3 fantastic fruit cakes. One for Gemma, one for Rose and one for my Aunt Dympna (not her birthday, but a long story!). 

Back Row L-R - Brother Tony, me, sisters Gemma, Rosemary and Loretta and brother Tracy. Brother in law Bill and Aunty Dympna in front

Margaret made three cakes: L-R Gemma, Dympna, Rose

Dinner at our place

 As well as enjoying in all the parties, dinners, morning teas etc, Murray and I had a chance to get up close and personal with two of my nieces' children. Lincoln was 6 and Erin was 3 going on 14 years. Within 5 minutes I was texting the family asking where Erin's 'off' button was. They were too busy enjoying their expresso martinis to reply, other than to say that I 'need to pull her right pigtail 3 times'. While that act only seemed to excite her more, she did quieten down and play well with her iPad games after that. Those kids are so smart with how they use their iPads. Amazing. 

Lincoln and Erin play on their iPad and iPhone

While I am in America in the RV I don't have a chance to miss cooking with my Thermomix, but once I get home I can't wait to get started. On day one I made my home made butter and vegetable stock, as well as a large batch of vegetable soup. Next request was from my niece Bridgette to make a Lychee/Lemongrass martini. My nieces Bridgette and Rosie (and each with their youngest child) and their mum (my sister Gemma) and dad Bill, and my Aunty Dympna came here to dinner one night, so the martinis kicked off the evening beautifully. My next martini in the Thermomix will be an expresso martini. Since then, I have also made cauliflower rice, and today I made Clinker Rocky Road to take up to the Gold Coast tomorrow. Murray and I did a taste test on it after dinner tonight, and it passed the test with flying colours. 

Trish, Gemma, Bridgette, Dympna and Rosie with our lychee martinis

Rocky Road made with clinkers, chewy jelly raspberries, tiny marshmallows and peanuts

End of our 7th RV USA Trip

We drove south from Nebraska into Kansas, and fittingly came across these beautiful fields of sunflowers. I say 'fittingly', because Kansas is known as the Sunflower State. 

Mind you there are a lot of wheat and corn fields here too. In fact, while we were in our campground, Murray noticed a chap working in an adjacent field. By the time he had finished doing whatever he was working on and wandered to the field to chat to the chap, there was no sign of him. However he found a few bits of ripe, golden wheat left over from the harvester. He put it in a sheaf for me to share with you all. 

We were due to drive to Kansas City the next morning - our final destination once more, before we put the RV in the cave for storage during our absence. Murray was doing his usual maintenance check, and detected that one of the inside, back tyres was flat. The Gods were smiling on us that day, as there happened to be Don's Tire business directly across the road from our RV Park. Even though it was 7.30pm, it was still daylight, and Murray noticed there were still some guys in Don's Tires so he walked over and asked if there was any chance of getting our tyre fixed in the am. Sure enough, we just had to be there at 8am and they would take care of it. Perfect. 

Nasty blow out

Time for the spare tyre

We left Don's Tires with our spare tyre fitted, and were on the road by 9am. After driving for a while, we saw a nice, new Walmart en route, and we couldn't resist dropping in for a final farewell, and to break up the 2.5 hour drive west to Kansas City. Before we knew it, the city of Kansas City, Missouri was right in front of us (albeit a tad hazy as it was a hot, hot day), and we knew we weren't far from our last RV park of the trip. As we turned into the street where our campground is, this horse and wagon pulled out in front of us. A reminder of days gone by from this very area (the wagons that participated in the rush for land in California passed by on this block of land and it is maintained as a National Heritage area). 

Kansas City

Wagon days

We had only been checked into the RV park for a few hours when we got a text from our friends Randy and Andrea saying they would be at our door at 5pm. You may recall in a previous blog where we met up with Jess and Bobbie - they are Randy's daughter and mother, respectively. It was great to see them again, and we spent time catching up on the past 12 months, as we had called in and visited them at their home near St Louis last year. We then decided to head to a nearby Outback Steakhouse for dinner, but not before giving them a tour of the cave where we store our RV each year. 

Murray, me, Andrea, Randy

Talk about a small world. The chap, Bruce, who served us in the Outback restaurant overheard Randy and Murray mention Northern Pike - a fish commonly caught up in Missouri and North Dakota. He asked where the fish was caught, and I mentioned how Murray had caught a 48" Northern Pike in North Dakota a few years back - it even made the paper! Bruce then said his wife grew up in a small town in North Dakota, and when I asked the name of the town, it was the same town where our friends that we camp with each year live. Milt, the chap that owned the boat that Murray was in when he caught the 'whopper' fish lived in the same town as Bruce's wife was from. Bruce asked the name of our friends, and he said that he knew of them. However, when he got home and relayed the story to his wife, she knew the name of our friends intimately, as she and our friends' son were playmates as children, and my girlfriend Kathy used to babysit her. She quickly got on the phone and rang Kathy in North Dakota and told how her husband had met her Australian friends etc etc. I got a phone call from my girlfriend the next morning asking how we enjoyed our dinner at Outback! I knew I hadn't mentioned it to her, so I was wondering how she knew - the story came out, and we both were amazed at what a small world we live in. It turns out that Bruce and his wife are going to be staying in our friend's camper next week during a family reunion up there in the little tiny town of Underwood. Population <800 again="" and="" as="" at="" balance="" boom="" closed="" count="" down.="" even="" has="" home="" last="" less="" might="" mining="" nbsp="" nw="" oil="" out="" probably="" retirement="" span="" that="" the="" there="" though.="" to="">

After dinner, it was still light (it doesn't get dark until around 10pm), we took Randy and Andrea on a quick tour of the Independence, Missouri area around our campground, including President Truman's home where he lived with his wife and what became their 'Summer White House', and also the area where he spent 64 years of his life. The County Courthouse here is where he started his political career. So much history within a few blocks.

The next day we were packing our suitcases after yet another great time visiting the USA. We visited 15 states and had a fantastic time with lots of great memories and some unforgettable experiences. You only have to read through the blog to get an idea of how we spent the past 4 months, and you can see a rough outline of our travels in the map below. 

People keep asking us when we are going to sell the motorhome, but we are taking it year by year. At this stage, all we know is we want to come back one more time...after that, who knows...We drove our RV into our cave where it will sit in a constant 62 F or 16.5 C year 'round, until we come and turn on the ignition to begin another trip. 

Parked until next spring

Nebraska 2013

Here we are in our last week before flying back home to Australia, following a wonderful 4 months in USA. These photos were taken as we were driving through Nebraska, and when we spent 4 nights. The wheat, corn fields and soy crops lined both sides of the road as we travelled south. There were also many feedlots, where they fatten up cattle prior to sale for the meat market. 

Wheat fields ripe and ready for harvest

Corn fields both sides of the highway

Corn rows as far as the eye can see

I was a bit late trying to get a photo of this feedlot, but you get the idea

Shady RV site overlooking the golf club (center left) and corn fields (to the right)

Our campground in Waco, Nebraska was adjacent to a nice 9 hole golf course. Our RV site overlooked a cornfield and was in a nice, shady area. Murray could walk a few steps to the golf club, and I had an unobstructed view of the fields. At dusk the fireflies flitted in the grass and bushes right beside the RV. I could sit at my laptop and watch them in airconditioned comfort. 

Murray heading off to pick up his golf buggy and come back for his clubs

Wylie Campground Aberdeen, South Dakota

After we said goodbye to Bobbie and Jess (see previous blog), it was such a beautiful evening, that Murray and I decided we would take a walk around the Wylie Campground and the adjacent Storybook Land. Regular blog readers will remember we stopped at this same campground in South Dakota in June last year - 2012. It was a few minutes after 9.06 pm when we set out, and were greeted by this beautiful setting sun. Even though the photo seems quite dark (because I zoomed in), it was still very light as you can tell by the photos of the animals. I didn't use a flash until I got to Dorothy and the Land of Oz.

Even though we have been here before, it was so relaxing to walk along the path and chat to the animals. The first animal we came to was this Lama, but he wasn't in the chatting mood - in fact, he ignored us completely. So after a few minutes we walked past the Mallard Ducks and then stayed for a while marvelling at the huge size of the bison. Yes Jen, they are still shedding their winter coats up here and still look a bit shaggy. It will only be shed just in time to grow a nice new, thick winter coat. Then we saw the ducks and geese and some baby chicks. Cute little fluffy things. 

An aloof Lama!

Mellow Mallards

This was a big brute of a bison

Nice rack!

See the brown baby chicks?

Sika Deer - with baby fawn

By the time we had finished visiting with the animals, the next turn found us in the centre of Storybook Land - it was 9.40pm and getting quite dark. We realised that we were the only ones in here, but I was like a kid in a candy store and was taking photos of this and that, and chuckling at the way they had depicted the nursery rhymes from my youth. I felt like a kid again.

American flag and lamplight - so pretty

This little piggy made his house of straw - the big bad wolf huffed and puffed and blew the house in!

The wolf had no chance with blowing down the house of bricks!

Dorothy and her Oz team! 

I was busy taking a photo of Dorothy with her Land of Oz mates, when Murray called out to say the gates all seem to be locked! I looked at my watch and didn't wonder - it was nearly 10pm. I looked at how high the fence was, and was ready to pass Murray my camera and iPhone so that I could scale the fence, when we did a bit more of a wander around the perimeter. Thankfully we found a gate that was slightly ajar. Phew! The photo on the left was taken at 9.47pm. Still enough light to see by and walk safely back to our RV which was just around the corner. 

Safely out the gate and walking to our RV