Real Life Adventures

Some of you may be wondering what Paul and I have been up to since our last post. After all, settling into retired life is an adjustment.



Many day to day aspects of our life remain consistent. But, we are able to report we enjoy spending our days together.

We ended our trip to warmer climates last February to prepare for our trip to Italy with the Rosemount High School Chorale. The trip was all we hoped for and more.

We landed in Rome and boarded buses for Sorrento.



We spent a day on the Isle of Capri.


And spent a day on the Amalfi Coast.


We toured the ruins of Pompeii.


And drove north to stay in Orvieto and tour Assisi.


We ended the week in Rome where we once again visited the ruins surrounding the Roman Coliseum,

the Vatican
and St. Peter's Basilica.


The students performed five concerts during their tour and did a wonderful job. We enjoyed spending our days in the company of young people. Although we returned home exhausted, we were very happy for the experience.

As the calendar turned toward spring we realized we were settling into a very good routine.


And we found we were ready to tackle some of those projects we had been unable to get to during our careers.

We worked in our basement to clean our storage room which had accumulated years of "memories."


We shredded multiple years' supplies of obsolete records.


With the basement storage under control, we turned our efforts outdoors.

I have never spent more time outside enjoying the spring weather. I love the outdoors. It brought me back to my childhood on the farm.

Okay, so it wasn't exactly "Little House on the Prairie" but it was a time of many happy memories.

Paul and I raked leaves.

And practiced "controlled" burns.

We pruned apple trees.

And cleared TONS of brush that had grown and grown for years.

While we worked, I found my mind going back to life in Antelope Township and remembering how much I loved being outside on our farm.


You see, I was a middle child.


And, as I choose to remember, Mom placed me in charge of the four younger boys, who were pretty much banished from the house on a regular basis. We had a good thing going outside. There were so many areas to explore. Then, one day, an older (unnamed but dearly loved) sibling, full of early adolescent empowerment, stomped out into the yard and proclaimed I was to report into the house immediately. I knew my life was to take an incredible change for the worse. I wasn't sure what was going on inside that house, but I knew one thing,

it wasn't going to be a pleasant change in my day. I did what any sane individual would have done. I headed for the chicken coop.


And hid under the roost.


It didn't last long. I knew I couldn't spend the rest of my life under there.

It wasn't that we had an unhappy life.

Rather, we were rarely allowed gradual transitions.

Life was dished out in a series of abrupt turns.


Where were the pleasant routines we practiced with our own children?



We were raised in a "It's bedtime, go!" world.


We were not indulged.


However, we did know about indulgences!


Now (and here my mind digresses), according to church teaching


I gleaned as a child, even after "sinners" were absolved in the confessional (where we found ourselves every two weeks)

and said our Our Fathers or Hail Marys as penance, people still faced punishment in Purgatory

before we could enter heaven.

That scared the bejeepers out of me as a child!

In exchange for certain prayers, a Catholic could receive an indulgence, which reduced or erased that punishment instantly, with no formal ceremony or sacrament. Great news! Something onto which I could grasp !!!

Hope!!!

You see, we were made very aware of our possibilities. Catholicism, particularily during our childhood, was not a religion of gray areas. It was pretty much black and white.

As I remember, I was having a considerable challenge staying out of trouble in the venial (or less serious) "sin" department. There were too many sibling incidents in any given week I had to deal with in that confessional.

I was too, well, human.


I figured I was going to need a savings account. So, I would kneel in church (where we seemed to be quite often now that I think about it) and I would take my missal

and I would pray those prayers to rack up the indulgences.

And, to me it was the best use of applied math

I ever came up with in my life. (Sorry, Lisa!)

I spent considerable time figuring out how I could lessen my time in Purgatory, whatever that was.

This activity helped me pass many hours sitting in that church. I figured I had years of my "sentence" taken care of and was looking forward to quite a savings account in case I ran into some "snarls" ahead.

I am thinking I wasn't the only person who did this.

And then, one day, a bunch of old guys in Rome

who had been so far removed from their childhood or family life they could not even remember

wiped out indulgences.

They said they didn't count anymore.

I just couldn't believe it.

But it doesn't matter.

I am over it.

Whatever.

Where was I?

Oh, yes, working outside.

This was just one of the thoughts that crossed my abstract random mind as we worked to clear corners of our yard that were briar patches.

I guess I worked out a few briar patches in my own mind in the process!!!



And, as we worked together, we turned those messes into cleared and clean areas.


We felt such a feeling of accomplishment as we worked each day.


We have spent 14 days outside so far this spring. Now, we are working to transplant forgotten perennials to new locations. Plants are being given a chance to grow and thrive.

We have moved geraniums,
sedum,

peonies,


ornamental grasses,


Siberian iris, (originally from Dad's garden in Reile's Acres)


hostas,


daylilies,
and ground covers.



Time will tell if they are happy with the abrupt changes we have brought to their lives.

I guess we didn't offer them opportunity for transition!

We work hard every day. But, we set our own schedule. When we are tired, we quit.

And then we head into the house and relax.

One of us has even started to


And we really do enjoy our days together,


in spite of our strong opinions!

Because, we do


It is time to get the camper out of winter storage and hit the road.

Where will our next trip take us?

We'll keep you posted!

Biloxi, Mississippi to Inver Grove Heights-February 1-6, 2009

We last left you on our final night in Carrabelle, Florida, prepared to travel to Biloxi, Mississippi. That night, we treated ourselves to one last meal of fresh seafood.

We had everything all ready for an early start. We rose just as the sun was rising out on the bay at HoHum.

We watched it come up, climbed into the truck and started on our way.

By early afternoon, we were in our new spot at Majestic Oaks RV Resort

in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Majestic Oaks is a brand new park, newly built post Katrina. It was a very nice place with top notch facilities, but we missed the friendliness of the people in our Florida parks. People were either visiting the casinos or working in Biloxi, so it was a different environment. However, it was a very comfortable, secure resort!

We were glad we experienced this coastal region, one of the hardest hit areas during Hurricane Katrina

and much of what we saw was quite disheartening, to say the least. Although much work has been done, the destruction of Katrina is still very evident. Many buildings remain in their ruined state.

This is "The White House" an historic landmark hotel situated right on the gulf drive in Biloxi. I read an article in the paper this week stating that 2/3 of the federal funds allocated for reconstruction in the area destroyed by Katrina remain unspent, tied up in bureaucratic stupidity. That, combined with the state of the economy presents a very unfortunate situation.

There are bright spots on the horizon, however. There are brand new casinos

and beautiful new Baptist churches. What more could you want to revive a community?

And another bright spot, a chain saw artist has almost completed a project turning some of the ruined oak trees along the gulf drive into sculptures. This is his last piece, still a work in progress.


The NBC nightly news did a feature on this project and aired it while we were in Biloxi. I especially liked this sculpture of a seahorse.

We crossed over the new bridge connecting Biloxi to Ocean Springs. We remembered seeing news footage of the old bridge in ruins after the hurricane. One can still see the remnants of the old bridge in the bay. The new one is very beautiful.

Our visits to regions always focus, as you may notice, on the


We crossed the new bridge on our way to Gulf Shores National Seashore, where all the facilities have been rebuilt. We did a walk out along Davis Bayou that enters into the bay.

And along a saltwater marsh.

We did some hiking along a trail that leads through magnolia trees canopies. Although many of the trees were destroyed, there are beautiful old ones still remaining. I would love to see Mississippi, the "Magnolia State" when they are in bloom!

We also drove north a few miles to the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge.
The Mississippi sandhill crane is an endangered species, as opposed to the species we saw all over Venice, Florida. Although we did not see any of these birds

on our hike that day,

we did see flocks of bluebirds

in the area surrounding the marsh.

We are glad we experienced the Biloxi area. We will come back someday and stay longer.

We decided to cut our trip short by a few days and head back to Minnesota. The furnace in our camper did not work properly and those last nights were cold.

We looked at the weather forecast between Mississippi and Minnesota and saw

so we winterized the camper and turned north.

We drove the first day through Mississippi, Tennesse and Arkansas to the bootheel of Missouri,

to the small town of Caruthersville, where we stayed at a casino campground on the Mississippi River. You can see the smokestacks of the river boat casino in the background of this picture. We never unhooked the camper from the truck, as we were just "passing through" and not staying long!

It was a very cold night in Caruthersville. This area had been hit by a terrible ice storm the prior week. An inch thick blanket of ice had caused terrible damage which was very evident along the highway as we drove from Memphis to Missouri. There were hundreds of "cherry picker" trucks as electrical contractors from all over were working to restore power to the region. It is a good thing we didn't have to find a hotel room.

We were up at dawn and headed north. One last night in Cedar Falls, Iowa


(in a warm hotel, thank you very much) and a late morning stop at our camper dealer to drop off the camper for a furnace repair and we were



early Friday afternoon.

When the truck stopped in our garage, the odometer showed we had driven EXACTLY 5,000 miles since we left on New Year's Eve!

We traveled through twelve states on our trip.



As we drove up Interstate 35 that last day, we both agreed we have the



Even if we did miss the kids


very much, we are starting to dream of our first "post winter" trip. Where will it be?



We'll keep you posted!!!