Sunday, September 21, 2014

My current desktop is part of the road that I run on. I just love the weeping willow that drapes the whole way across the road.

You know something?

“What’s that?” you ask.

Now that it is Sunday (as you can plainly see by the date at the top of this letter) and it’s time for me to sit down and write to you, I did a really crappy job keeping notes and I just wanted you to know that.

Have y’all been busy this past week? I’m guessing you have. Last weeks letter only got four views from the FaceBook link. On the email? I don’t have any way of knowing how many of you read my letters that way, but I do know that it was read by at least three beautiful ladies because they emailed me.

My friend Barb wanted to know if we got our new RV yet and as of the time this goes to press the answer is no.

My older and much adored sister Patti says I should upgrade my software so I don’t lose my stories so much.

My daughter Kat had a very interesting perspective on the bull in the cow pasture and I thought I would share that with you.


“I wanted to pass on info about cows which I learned during an internship for vet tech school. We were doing ultrasounds for pregnancy checking on a batch of 50 cows. The farmer kept a steer (castrated bull) in each heard of females. He said the male being with the females helped with the cows ovulation cycles....regulated their hormones, and he had a higher birthing rate than before he kept a steer with them. Out of the 50 we checked only 6 were not pregnant....and 2 were old enough they would be retired soon after our visit.”
How interesting!

I spent most nights this past week working in my glass shop with my friend and neighbor Stephanie. We were making beach themed suncatchers for her daughter Jonecca’s window in her college dorm room. We made a mama turtle and twin babies, a rare blue lobster, flip-flops and angelfish. Saturday was parents day at the college and I wanted to have them done so Steph could take them to Jonecca.

Working with Steph was a great gal-bonding time of talking, drinking wine and getting something productive done along the way! I think the suncatchers came out fabulous and I hope Jonecca likes them too.

And that my loves is not only the reason I don’t have much news, it’s also the reason that I haven’t yet published my novelette.

“Don’t tell us that Peg!” you say. “We know your sister was there for a visit and you haven’t told us anything about that!”

I know, right!

Here’s the thing with my cute little red haired sister’s visit. We had such a grand adventure that I wanted to make it a story all in it’s own! So you are going to have to wait until I have the time to get it written. Okay?

In the meantime Mike and I are once again in Bath, New York. We received notice that our new RV has been delivered to the dealer and we hoped to get the issues with the tow brakes on our Jeep resolved at the same time. Unfortunately just because we showed up early doesn’t mean they have time to look at it, does it?

When we were up here before we just slept in the parking lot of Camping World and there is no TV reception there at all. Nothing. Zip. Nada! And here we were three days early! We decided to go to an RV park for at least one or two nights. The first place we pulled into was all decorated for Halloween. We registered and when we pulled into our assigned spot we were leaning pretty hard.

“Peg, walk back down to the office and see if we can get that spot over there, would ya?” Mike asked pointing to an empty spot three places away.

“Okay,” I agreed, never one to turn down a walk. I get back to the office and request a different site.

“I’m booked full up,” the lady tells me. “It’s our Spooktacular Weekend and I don’t have any other sites.”

“I don’t think we are going to stay then,” I told her anticipating what Mike would say and I was right, he didn’t want to stay and the lady gladly refunded our money.

You know what? As much of a pain in the arse that it was to have to go to another park, it was a blessing in disguise. The new place was running a September special, buy two nights and it’s half price. Heck, that made the decision easy for us. We booked two nights for less money per night than the original park and this was a way better park! For $32.50 we had water, sewer, electric, cable TV, internet and all the amenities you can think of. There are hiking trails, miniature golf, basketball court, tennis court, play ground for the kids, swimming pools with all kinds sprinklers for the kids to run through, a dog park for the dogs to run off leash as well as a game room, activity center and a camp store.

It is such a nice park, well landscaped, mature trees, fire rings at each campsite. With map in hand (that’s how big this place is) I took my camera and walked the girls. This park has park models and cabins that can be rented and there was one section with five cabins all fenced off and a little secluded so it would be perfect for a family gathering.

One of the things that I liked the most was the little chipmunks, or some people call them ground squirrels. I have never seen so many of these little guys all in one place before! In fact I hardly ever see any in my day to day travels. I’m guessing that the eco system here in the park is very much to their liking because they are abundant here, that’s for sure.

This little guy, with his mouth stuffed full, came charging right at me, then he saw me, stopped and reversed course.

I walked right past this tree as he was getting ready to eat a fungi, and never saw him. It was the second time past him that Itsy ran over to the tree and that’s when I spot the mushroom growing in what almost looks like a maw, more than six feet off the ground. Can you see it? The slanty eyes, the lower fangs?

Sigh.

Maybe it’s only me. I have a couple of tree faces to show you sometime, but not this time.

Let’s call this one done.

Lots and lots of love,

Peg and Mike