Wirelesstrips.com

Richard was right about timing our drive through Chicago and avoiding traffic. We didn’t need to stop even one time! We arrived in Racine shortly after noon. Richard’s friend, Chris, immediately came over (to the campground) and they had a good time together. We then drove to Scott and Kelly’s place in Kenosha and Kelly cooked us a DELICIOUS gluten-free pizza dinner. She also made cupcakes for dessert and the boys were over the moon!

On Friday night, we had a beautiful storm and fell asleep to the sound of huge raindrops plop-plopping on the roof of the RV. That’s one of my favorite sounds.

On Saturday morning, I emptied my (rather large) purse and then re-packed it with sunscreen, bottled water, and an extra pair of clothes for both the boys. We drove to Richard’s mom’s house, where we met up with her, Mike, Becky (Richard’s sister) and the cousins, Ben and Emma. We all had breakfast before heading to the Renaissance Fair. During breakfast, Mason wiped his sticky-bun-laden fingers all over his nice, clean shirt. I was nervous about using his one extra outfit that early in the day, knowing if I did he’d need to change all over again. I was right. On the way to the fair, he took a drink from a bottle of water and sloshed that all over himself. I changed his outfit just before we got out of the car to go into the fair.

Oh my gosh, it was SO HOT THERE! After living in Maine for a decade, we aren’t accustomed to that heat and humidity. I was thrilled to be able to find turkey legs, however, and I “gobbled” one down, despite the heat.

Kelly and I cooled off with some Mediaval Margaritas. Heh…

The children rode some rides and I went into some of the shops.

Grandma and Mike bought the boys swords and they had a great time with those!

Emma adorned her  hair with flowers and leaves, with some help from a beautiful fairy.

It was a fun time but we were sure ready to leave when 4:00 rolled around. We drove back to Racine and we all had a big dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Despite the spicy food, it was MUCH cooler in there.

On Sunday, we all took the long drive to Grandma and Grandpa Blum’s house. Mason calls them Gramma and Grampa Balloon. Very cute. Grandma had made us Thanksgiving dinner. What a treat that was! It was delicious! Later in the day, we made sandwiches with the leftover turkey. Yum!!! It was a great day and the cousins enjoyed playing together, inside and out. Grandma had Becky go through her magazines and get rid of the old ones. I gladly volunteered to take them because the pile contains lots of cooking magazines (for Ali) and others (for Max’s schoolwork – cut, paste, cut, paste).

On Monday, I worked in the morning and then we ran some errands (lunch and grocery store). Chris, Scott and Kelly were coming to the RV for dinner (Richard’s mom and step-dad had to work that day). I wanted to make a gluten-free dinner and it wasn’t really too challenging at all. After I researched which chili is truly gluten-free (some claim to be but are not), and after standing in front of the hotdogs in the store with my phone and Googling the different name brands, and after finding a small gluten-free section in that store, it was a breeze! I was more concerned about cross-contamination because we’re such bread-heads. I started off by scrubbing the kitchen counter and table in the RV. I then rewashed ALL the dishes I planned to use while cooking. I also went through several clean rags while washing and drying my hands all afternoon, just in case.

Finally, I wouldn’t let the boys open the bread drawer all evening, nor would I allow them to bring the hotdog buns inside. I also made a chocolate cake with chocolate icing from a gluten-free mix and it was perfect – nice and moist. I garnished it with strawberries. You really never know how baked items will turn out when cooking in the RV oven so I was pleased.  It all worked out great and Kelly didn’t get sick. Yea!!!

After dinner, another old friend of Richard’s came over, bringing his wife. At one point during the evening, Chris, Kelly and I went to the park with Max and Mason. It was after dark but we didn’t care. We had a blast until we got busted (by someone half our age!) for being in the park after closing hours. Heh…

Tomorrow morning, Richard is taking the boys swimming while I work and we’ll be having dinner at the home of someone who I’ve heard has a HUGE collection of Star Wars memorabilia. The boys are so excited! Yes, of course I’ll take pictures!

I’ve posted many, many more pictures of our trips HERE.

PREVIOUS POSTS FROM THIS TRIP:

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.