When we walked into the casino, Max and Mason were in awe of the lights and the slot machines (which they were only permitted to ogle from a distance). Max was looking in wonder at the actual casino and said, “I wish I was 18!” Richard and I don’t gamble so we dragged the boys upstairs for some food.

Our first choice was Rodizio, a Brazilian steakhouse. We love those. They bring around huge skewers of meat to your table, over and over again. We don’t eat much meat but we do indulge when we go to a Brazilian steakhouse! Unfortunately, the hostess said they couldn’t seat us for another 45 minutes. She said she could call any of their other restaurants to try to get us in more quickly. I chose Wildflowers, their fine dining restaurant, which is “AAA Four-Diamond-rated” (that means expensive).

Sure enough, the hostess looked up, and said, “It’s, um, very expensive.”

Okay, maybe we looked like weary travelers because WE WERE. But I also looked around me and saw lots of retired folks dressed in shorts and the like. Maybe she suspected we couldn’t afford a fine dining restaurant because we have small children? (A waiter I once knew – not a friend – said he hated serving families with kids because the tips were always smaller. We ALWAYS tip very well.) I replied, “I don’t care about the cost. Can we eat there with children?”

She replied, “Oh, sure! Kids eat there all the time.” She then called them and they said they had an immediate table for us.

We took quite a stroll to get there (that casino is HUGE!!!) and were given a nice table with two chairs and a booth. Max and Mason took the booth. I reminded Mason (age 4) to be on his best behavior. Max (age 9) is always on his best behavior but Mason is still in SST (Social Situation Training).

Here are some examples of the entertainment Mason provided to our fellow diners that evening (ahem):

Yes, he’s pretending to smoke a wine cork…

Mason’s Menu Telescope

Mason didn’t like the appetizer…and he obviously forgot to wash his hands!

I took Mason to the bathroom to wash his hands and he got fingerprints all over the mirror trying to make a stationary stool spin.

He wanted to know if he was supposed to eat the warm washcloth the waiter brought him.

He convinced the kind waiter to bring him a whole bowl of cherries.

Mason convinced Max to give up his own cherry but then Max then go into trouble for almost getting his hand stuck in the glass. He blamed Mason, of course.

There was a lively table of three men sitting behind Max and Mason. One of them had on a light blue leisure suit (no kidding) and reminded me Steve McQueen (a loooooong time ago). While we were doing our best to constantly remind Mason to sit still and be quiet, we were shocked when a wine cork flew over the booth between Max and Mason, soaring under our table. We burst into laughter, breaking the hushed atmosphere of the restaurant. The rowdy boys at that table also started laughing, and apologizing profusely. Seems one of them tried to flick it toward his buddy…but missed by about 12 feet. I assured them it was just fine and told them how happy we were that missiles were incoming instead of being launched by our youngest boy.

After dinner, the waiter told us the rowdy boys had picked up the tab for our dessert. As they were leaving, Blue Leisure Suit passed by and thanked us for being good sports. We thanked them for livening up our evening! You can kind of see them in the background here:

(And, don’t miss Mason forgetting his table manners above…)

Dinner was absolutely amazing – truly the best food we’ve had in all our travels over the years – and we highly, HIGHLY recommend Wildflowers at Turning Stone Casino.

The following day, we head further southeast as a hurricane is barrelling northwest! Will we have a collision? But of course!

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

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He called around and found a place that could replace the tire the next day. If they could get it done early enough, we could still get some driving in the next day. We were in a rush to get to Connecticut and a hurricane was bearing down on the East Coast so timing was crucial.

We had dinner that night at The Pufferbelly, which is located in an old fire house. The food was excellent and we had a great time! The next morning, we got up and drove the RV to the truck repair place. The manager and employees were super nice. We were going to buy a new set of tires before our big trip in January anyway so we decided to go ahead and have it done then, since another tire had problems as well. We had two blowouts a few years ago and I never, ever want to experience that terror again!

We took our tow vehicle for breakfast and, while we were eating, I thought I heard a guy yelling “TAXI!” outside. I looked up and he was standing outside the restaurant, looking up, apparently to a window above the restaurant. And, he was actually yelling, “LEXI!” He kept yelling for her and I guess she kept ignoring him. Perhaps young men who are trying to attract young ladies should wear shirts?

After breakfast, Richard called the repair place and learned the RV was all fixed! With had six new truck tires and we were $2,000 poorer…

We hit the road to see how far East we could get by dusk. I love driving through upstate New York and it was a beautiful afternoon. We don’t gamble but Richard was curious about what’s reported to be a really nice campground at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York. I called and they were available so we stopped there.

We unpacked and called the shuttle to pick us up to take us to the casino for dinner. They told us to wait at the end of our road for the shuttle that it would be there in 5 minutes. What they didn’t tell us is that we’d get eaten alive by mosquitoes. As they started buzzing, we started walking (quickly!) to the campground office in an attempt to stay ahead of the buzzing, hoping we’d meet up with the shuttle (we didn’t). I kept Mason busy by telling him to “call the bats.” I figured there must be plenty of them with all those mosquitoes buzzing at dusk. Mason started making kissing sounds with his mouth and saying, “Bat! Here bat!” Within a few minutes, sure enough, a bat swooped by, having his dinner. What a treat! We also saw several Canada Geese in V formations, flying low. So, despite the bug bites, it was a very unique stroll!

We arrived at the campground office and they once again called the shuttle. That time, they showed up very quickly. We walked into the casino and it was very impressive. Max could see all the slot machines in the distance and said, ‘I wish I was 18!”

Dinner was quite interesting! I’ll tell you all about that next time.

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

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The windshield wipers (they keep stopping in the middle of the window when you turn them off)

The quarter-panel on the passenger side (it came loose and is currently being held on with duct tape)

The slides (they are squeaking, and probably need a good greasing)

The air conditioner (the filters need to be changed)

And, the big one – our big plug that we use when plugging into the power at a campground is…melting. Yes, you read that right.

The other day, when Richard’s friend, Chris, was visiting us at the RV in Racine, the power kicked off. That happens sometimes but usually when we do something dumb, like trying to run the air conditioner and the microwave at the same time. We figured that was what had happened so Richard threw the breaker and everything came back on and we didn’t give it another thought.

On Friday, when we arrived at our next stop in Frankenmuth, MI, it was quite warm and we plugged in and ran the air conditioner with no trouble. That night, however, the power went out. Richard discovered everything was off when he got up the next morning. The next afternoon, it was off again. Richard threw the switch and it came back on again, but only for a few minutes so Richard called the campground office. They came out and took a look. Richard had already noticed our plug was starting to melt. It was a Saturday and nobody nearby would be available to replace the end of that plug for us. We did buy a converter so we could plug into the 50 amp plug but we couldn’t risk a fire by continuing to use the air conditioner. We could run everything else without the plug getting hot but not the A/C. It was around 92 at the time so we did what any normal family would do. We went to an air conditioned restaurant for dinner.

This is how hot the RV gets on the outside while parked in direct sunlight (which is why we like SHADED campground spots!).

After dinner, we walked to the park and the boys played until sunset.

By then, it was cool enough to just run the fan in the RV with the windows open. (Our neighbors were playing 80′s music outdoors and that was a treat.) After midnight, it dipped down into the upper 50′s and we actually needed quilts the rest of the night. We got up bright and early and hit the road because we can run the air conditioner all day as long as the generator is on. And, we can run the generator on the highway, but not at a campground (because neighbors would complain about the noise).

After dinner, Max, Mason and I all started having stomach cramps. Max’s stomach had been cramping before dinner a bit so it wasn’t that meal in particular but we obviously all had a mild case of travelers diarrhea. I was up for a few hours (ug) and racked my brain but couldn’t figure out what the three of us ate/drank that Richard didn’t. By morning, we were all feeling just fine, thank goodness.

We are currently racing down the highway somewhere in Ohio. We stopped at a crowded rest-stop for gas and lunch. Mason wanted one item in particular. We stood in line for 10 minutes waiting to order, and then another 10 minutes to pick up the order…and then Mason decided he didn’t want to eat it (sigh…). On the tollway after that, Richard took out an orange cone but it’s been otherwise uneventful day. Concerned about the incessant heat and our lack of air-conditioning while parked, Richard had me check the weather for our next three city stops.  We ended up with another major mechanical problem as well. More on that later in the week!

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My wonderful husband, who always spoils me rotten, rerouted us to Frankenmuth, MI on our way home, which added about 240 miles total to our trip. When we arrived there on Friday evening, I said, “Gosh, honey, I hope that sweater store is still here!” Heh…

On Saturday morning, we set off to once again explore that beautiful (and very touristy) town. First stop was lunch. Second stop? The sweater store – yes, it was still there! It only took me a few minutes to find another fine sweater, strong, hand-made, and ready to keep me warm on cold Maine winter nights for another seven years!

Mason thinks my new sweater makes a great Obi-Wan Kenobi costume.

I told the lady at the cash register about our long trip to get my new sweater. She was quite amused…before telling us about their website.

Oh, sure, I knew they had a website but I wasn’t going to spend that much money on one article of clothing that may or may not fit if ordered by mail. And, I needed to feel the sweater to ensure it was super soft. I had to be there in person.

We spent the rest of the day shopping (mainly for our adult children – the “big kids” – back home).

I was going to buy this jar of Morel Mushrooms for our daughter, Ali, who’s majoring in Culinary Arts…until I saw the $49.95 pricetag.

It got progressively hotter as the day wore on and I got a heat headache that pounded my right temple in rhythm to my pulse. It was time to head back to the RV, which is when we discovered we had a bit of an electrical problem…and no air conditioning due to a melting power plug. More on that tomorrow…

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

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The traffic around Chicago on Friday was MUCH worse than it has been the previous Friday, when we arrived.

At one point, we almost had a very bad accident. Richard was changing lanes at the same time a woman in a car was also changing lanes (into the same lane), and was moving into his blind spot. Good thing I was looking out the window to my side at that moment because I saw her just before she’d have hit us and I screamed, “NO!” Richard quickly moved to the left again. The lady never even saw us. It took about 15 minutes for my heart to stop pounding after that. We’ve decided we’re going to allot extra time from now on to trips in this area, and do whatever we can to go completely around Chicago to avoid the traffic (and their horrible, bumpy roads!).

Oh, and one other thing we saw today was a grass fire between the north/southbound lanes of the freeway in Michigan.

Tomorrow, we’re goin’ shoppin’ in Frankenmuth, MI!

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

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Late in the afternoon, we drove to Jim’s house. Jim is one of Richard’s old school friends and the one with the huge Star Wars collection. How huge? See for yourself…

Jim gave all the kids (our two youngest boys and our niece and nephew) souvenirs. They were all beyond thrilled, and happily played Star Wars using their imaginations for the rest of the evening.

On Wednesday, we worked in the morning (that’s the day we send out our weekly issue of WritersWeekly), and then met up with the family to head to the Dinosaur Museum in Kenosha, WI. It was very small but quite impressive for its size.

Scott’s wife, Kelly, who’s a friend of mine, met us there. We split from the group after the museum so we could get groceries. Kelly and Scott had invited ALL of us (13 people total) to their place for dinner. Kelly wanted me to see Woodman’s, a huge grocery store with three whole aisles of candy. Yes, I bought the “big kids” at home some goodies!

Kelly made a fantastic dinner for everyone (and she even let me help some!) of stuffed burgers (stuffed with cheese and bacon – aaaahhh!!!) and baked red potato chunks swimming in oil, butter, salt and pepper. She also made a beautiful fruit pizza for dessert that was gluten free. We ate the whole thing!

Thursday was our last full day in Racine and everybody was kinda bummed about that. We woke up early and drove to Richard’s mom’s house. We were excited about eating at Frank’s Diner in Kenosha, WI, which was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Channel. I wanted to take some pictures for Ali (our daughter, who’s majoring in Culinary Arts) and, of course, do some taste-testing (ahem…). Richard and I both had the garbage plate and, yes, it was as amazing as everybody says it is. I got the half-portion and still couldn’t eat it all. Highly recommended!

After that, Grandma Cindy wanted to take the children to Toys R Us for a spoilin’ session. Max got to pick out his birthday present (he turns 9 soon) and the other children got to choose something for $10 or less. They were quite happy about that!

I worked in the afternoon while Richard and his sister took all the kids swimming. Cindy/Grandma was shopping and cooking up a storm for us as she’d invited everyone to dinner at her place. We had amazing pork loin sandwiches, delicious cheesy potatoes, corn on the cob, green beans, and homemade cherry pie for dessert. (One more week until I start my post-trip diet!!)

We all had to say sad goodbyes after that as we’d only see Chris (Richard’s friend) the next day.

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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.

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I heard a funny noise at one point and discovered a loose panel on the RV, flapping wildly in the wind. We had to pull over so Richard could fix it with duct tape and some of my craft wire.

Max entertained himself with a plastic skeleton, some tape and a tissue box.

We entered Elkhart, Indiana around dinnertime and passed by some Amish farms. I love restaurants featuring Amish recipes and we were easily able to find one. I ordered Creamed Chicken and the plate they brought me a huge, steaming pile of it! In case you’ve never had it, it’s shredded chicken, swimming in gobs of gravy, lying on top of biscuits, which are lying on top of mashed potatoes. I’ve heard it’s a negative calorie dish!

Richard wanted to know if they expected me to go out and work all that off in the fields after the meal. I didn’t even come close to eating it all. I asked the waitress if anyone does indeed eat that entire plate and she said only two of her customers have….and they were men.

I also ordered one of my favorites, pickled beets.

And, there were 30 PIES ON THE MENU! I had a huge piece of Banana Cream Pie and it was heaven.

After dinner, we walked to some shops. I bought some crafting supplies (you can never have too many of those!) while the boys each got a small toy. We then drove to a local grocery store, which had hitching posts for the horses belonging to the Amish. The store seemed quite old (it had those old sacker carts) but it was very clean and all the sackers had on ties!

We are heading through Chicago traffic tomorrow, on our way to Wisconsin. Richard is going to try to time our departure just right so that we won’t encounter any traffic in Chicago. Ha ha ha ha ha!!!

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I took the boys inside while Richard finished pumping the gas. I ordered Mason’s “sammie” (that’s what he calls a flatbread, cheese sandwich) and Max’s usual, a “ham, salad and pickles sandwich” (salad means lettuce). I then ordered a toasted veggie for myself and the guy helping me got all bent out of shape when I told him which veggies I wanted before I told him which cheese I wanted. He made some crack about me getting ahead of myself. I was confused and said, “What?” At that moment, Richard walked up behind us.

With even more attitude, the Subway employee sighed and replied with something like, “You’re talking about something that’s down the line.

I realized he was giving me, the customer, lip so I raised my voice and said, “Look, I’m just trying to order lunch for my children. I don’t need attitude while I’m doing that.”

He didn’t say another word (and it’s a good thing he didn’t!). I looked back at Richard, who is the polar opposite of me when it comes to confrontation, and I’m pretty sure he was pretending he didn’t know me at that moment…until Mason turned around in my arms and said, “Hi, Daddy!” Heh…

We spent a few hours driving through Pennsylvania, which I love. The rolling hills and quaint farms are beautiful. If you venture onto the back roads, you’re likely to see one of these:

Whenever I see a sign like this I just wanna buy a quilt and eat some pickled beets!

Several miles down the highway, we hit some construction. Richard was driving very slowly and I was sitting in the passenger seat, formatting an author’s book, when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. A nice old lady was motioning to me. I opened the window and she said, “Your steps are down.” I thanked her profusely, got up, and turned them “off”, causing them to retract. They have previously done that automatically when we turn the engine on so that’s something we’ll need to add to the maintenance list. It was very nice of that woman to take the time to alert us because those steps are brand spanking new and it would be a shame to have to replace them yet again.

We had to replace them two weeks ago because, um, I was backing the RV out of the driveway and, er, the steps didn’t retract then either and, uh, I kinda hit the railroad ties and the steps bent badly and broke, getting wedged firmly into the wood. I should have taken a picture that day of Matt and Richard using a crowbar on those steps to try to straighten the metal. Richard was not terribly pleased with me on that day. That was even worse than the day I ran the entire side of the canopy along a huge tree. Heh… (See last picture HERE.)

When we finally arrived at the campground that night, the boys were getting restless. Right next to the campground office was a lake with a dock, a sand beach, and a slide in the water. Oh boy, were the boys thrilled! We quickly put on our shorts and sandals and headed for the water.

Max contemplating whether to keep going up…or to go back down.

Mason was admiring the sand castle built by a previous lake visitor.

They played there for about an hour before they decided they wanted to go to the park. We went back to the RV to put on dry clothes and then we walked to the park.

There was a sweet little girl there, probably around 6 or 7 years old, who approached Mason and said, “Would you like to play with me? I’m playing time portals and I need help getting back home. Right now, I’m stuck with the dinosaurs!”

Mason had NO idea what she was talking about but he was very pleased to play along. About 15 minutes later, she ran up to me and said, “There was a bee in his hair. I told him not to touch it but he did and he got stung.”

I looked at Mason who was just standing there holding his thumb. He sure didn’t look stung to me! I asked him if he got stung. He said yes and I inspected his thumb. Sure enough, there was a tiny hole there. He’d never been stung by a bee before so we walked back to the RV so we could treat it and keep an eye on him. I had a bad reaction to a bee sting when I was a little girl so I wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to have any trouble.

On the way back to the RV, he was still holding his thumb, but not crying at all. I thought that was really odd. I know those hurt like crazy! I also noticed he was cocking his head back, as if to rub the back of his head with the top of his shoulder. I said, “It’s okay, honey. The bee isn’t in your hair anymore.”

He replied matter-of-factly, “It stung me there, too.”

I looked and, sure enough, he had an area of swelling on the back of his head, just above his haircut line. I could see a tiny puncture hole there, too. So, Mason had two bee stings and didn’t shed one tear. Wow! He was more upset about not being able to stay and play with his incredibly creative time-traveling friend than he was about the stings!

Mason’s Bee Boo Boo

I’d called Richard to tell him what happened and he was ready when we arrived with the first aid kit. We washed the stings, looked for stingers (none there) and applied medicine. I bandaged his thumb but not his head. He then chilled on the couch, watching movies for the rest of the evening. And, again, no tears at all though he continued to rub his thumb for a couple of hours.

Tomorrow, we’re be driving through more of Ohio and into Indiana. I was born in Indiana but only lived there for three months before moving to Texas. We won’t be near any family as we’ll be passing through the wrong part of the state. We are looking forward to driving through miles and miles and miles of cornfields, which can put even the most caffeinated driver to sleep. Come on along!

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

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The KOA we stayed at had a HUGE sandbox and Max and Mason spent two hours ensuring they’d leave with sand in every nook and cranny. Needless to say, they both took showers before bedtime. Good news is the sand didn’t back up the RV pipes.

We didn’t pass any restaurants in town that appealed to us so, for dinner, we ordered pizza to be delivered to the RV. That’s always nice. No dishes!

We all took a walk at dusk. The early afternoon air had been really humid and warm but the evening breeze was perfect. This afternoon, Frank sent pictures of my pumpkins back home. I’ve been lovingly tending to them for over a month and Frank volunteered to try to keep them alive during my absense. If you’re a fellow gardener and are curious, click HERE.

Tomorrow, we’re heading further west, into Ohio. Come on along!

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

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