Standiford Family Web Log

We went down to the campground again this weekend. Got down there and went to the Creekside Cafe but they had quite a few people in line so we put our name on the list. They said it would be about 25 minutes so we went to the camper to set it up. Our friends had already turned on the refrigerator and air conditioner so all we had to due was put in the wheel chocks run out the slides and put the food in the refrigerator. Took about 10 minutes and then we went back to Creekside and they were ready to seat us.

Just about the time we were ready to sit down some other friends and their granddaughter came in so they sat with us. Kept them from putting their name on the list and waiting. Had the salad again. We just ell the waitress “the usual” and she knows what we want. Had an enjoyable meal. When we finished we sat with other friends under their awning for a while until we decided it was too hot and went into the camper.

Saturday morning we went down to the farmer’s market at Creekside and bought some Georgia peaches and a cucumber. We ordered 25 lbs of peaches to be delivered next weekend. The guy goes down every week and picks them up.

At 3:00 we went to the antique tractor pull. Only tractors 1959 and older are allowed to enter. The first tractor to pull was driven by an 87 year old lady. We stayed for about three weight classes and then left. The problem was that the tractors would add weight and then pull in the next class again. After we had seen the same tractors about three times we decided to get out of the heat. We went back to the camper for awhile and cooled off and then Beth went up to the duck pull. The first one hundred members could pull a duck and get a prize dependent on the number on the bottom of the duck. We have two memberships so she got to pull twice. She got an LVL mug and a $25 gift certificate to Olive Garden. One of our friends got an electronic picture frame and another one got an AM/FM/CD player. The rest of the friends didn’t fare quite so well. When they got back we went for a pitch-in at friends camper. Inside this time since it was so hot.

Had storms this morning but it did cool it off for a while. We sat around and shot the bull for a while and then went down to Creekside and had another salad for dinner. We came back, closed up the camper and came home. A really good weekend even though it was hot.

Didn’t post last week. We did go camping but didn’t really do much due to the heat. Mostly just stayed in the air conditioning. We did have a pitch-in for Saturday evening and then went up to Fort Wilderness instead of sitting outside in the heat. Beth had rented several movies so we did watch a couple of them. Even though we were not outside a great deal we did get away for the weekend which we like. The new door on the guest bedroom is finally completed. It looks great. Makes us want to hurry and get the rest of them done. Still have the baseboard to put down and the closet door to paint and put back up. Going camping again this weekend. The weather is supposed to be hot so I don’t know if we will do much more this weekend then we did last weekend.

Went down to the campground on Friday night. Ate a great grilled chicken salad at the Creekside Cafe. That is becoming a regular routine with us when we go down there. There was a group of horse enthusiasts that were camping over at the stables. They were having a fund raising event for St. Jude’s Childrens Hospital. They had a horse show on Friday night be we got there too late and by the time we ate and got set up we decided not to go.

We got up Saturday morning and went to Hutcheson Ford in St. James to pick up the truck. They had it to repair the front hub. They did it at no cost to us. I can highly recommend this dealership. They certainly did right by us. Next vehicle we buy we will definately give them a shot. Got back to the camper and worked on the security lights. We ran a separate wire from the door side light to the switch panel. I don’t have the third switch yet so I tied the two security lights together. Didn’t get it all done so we finished it up on Sunday. We did have a campfire Saturday evening even though it was rather hot.

Sunday we finished up the camper and put all the panels, etc. back in place. While I was at it I also ran a couple of wires so I can put in some outside speakers. Once that was done we mostly just visited. Found out my air compressor does not have enough pressure for the camper tires so I asked maintenance to pump up the tires when they put it into storage. I want them at the proper inflation when we go on vacation in a couple of weeks. Ate a salad at Creekside again for supper and headed for home.

Thursday night, October 30, we went to a dinner for our church. We are kicking off a big fund raiser to add on to the church and to pay off the existing mortgage. It was good food. Friday we went back down to the campground for the last camping of the year. It was great weather. In the seventies and sunny both Saturday and Sunday. We went to a new owner’s meeting on Saturday morning. It was interesting and we got some of our questions answered. At 1:00 we went to the costume contest. There were about 6 different classes for the costumes. The 6 and under were the cutest. At 3:00 they started trick or treating. We had about 125 kids. In the older section of the campground they actually close off the roads to traffic. We heard that people there had about 300 kids. It was really a lot of fun seeing all the clever costumes. Ate dinner at the cafe Saturday evening. Sunday morning we cleaned all the stuff out of the camper that we needed to take home, took out the batteries, etc. This year we are letting the campground do the winterization for us. Had dinner at the Texas Road House Sunday evening. Some friends were celebrating their 41st anniversay. We had not eaten there before. It is really good food. The next time we will go down to the campground is for Thanksgiving. We are going to stay in one of the condos. Looking forward to it.

Took an extra 1 1/2 days of vacation to make a long weekend. My sister, Linda, and her husband, Tom, came out to MO from IN to visit. They went to the campground with us. We reserved a condo for them. Got to the campground while it was still light out and were able to show them around a bit. Had dinner at the camper. On Friday we went to St. James winery and then to Hermann and visited two wineries. The weather was overcast and cool. Ate lunch at the Stone Hill winery in Hermann. Ate dinner at the camper. After dinner I was able to connect to a web site that had old TV theme songs on it. I would play the song and the others would try to guess what show it was from. Beth was the winner of that trivia contest. We’ve been married almost 36 years and I had no idea how good she is at trivia – or at least TV theme song trivia. Saturday morning Tom and I played three holes of golf. (The campground has a three hole golf course.) Then the four of us played two rounds of frisbee golf. After dinner Tom and I just relaxed a bit and Linda and Beth went into Hermann again to shop. Saturday evening we ate at the Creekside Cafe at the campground. Sat aroud the campfire with friends. Had a great fire. We needed it because it was cold. Tom and Linda left a little before noon on Sunday. We closed up, ate lunch at the Creekside and headed home. We stopped at the office on the way out to ask a question. Before we could get an answer my phone rang. It was the daughter of some of the people we were camping with. Her water broke and she was on the way to the hospital. She wanted to know if her mom and dad were still in the campground. They were so we went back and told them the good news. She would have called them direct except they have Verizon and they have almost no signal. Next weekend is the last weekend of camping for the year. Bummer.

Went down to the campground again on Friday night. Saw a lot of deer crossing the road or along the side of the road on the way down. No wonder so many get hit. We have been having the campground set up the camper for us. They level it and set the jacks, hook up the water, electric and sewer. They don’t turn on the water or electric. Takes us five minutes to finish when we get there. All we have to do is run out the slide out, carry in food, and turn on the water and electric. Sure is nice. We decided to go fishing from a boat on Saturday but there was too much wind and no anchor in the boat so it made it difficult. We ended up just trolling all the way around the lake. Should have taken the camera ’cause it sure looked pretty. Tried to build a fire on Saturday night but the wood was green and we could not get it going. Last time I buy wood there. Had the campground come out and look at the water heater again. They replaced the heating element last Sunday but it still didn’t work. Turns out there is a 12 vdc – 120 vac relay that is bad. They didn’t have one of those so I’ll have to get one and replace it. In the meantime we will have to continue to use gas for hot water. We did get a small fire going Sunday using kindling. It wasn’t a big fire but at least we had one. We just left the wood there. Friends of ours are camping on that spot next week and we’ll see if it is still there when we get down next Thursday. Tom and Linda are going to be down to the campground next weekend. We have reserved a condo for them. We are dooking forward to it. Sure hope they have a good time.

Not a whole lot to write about this time. We didn’t do a whole lot. Just relaxed, read, had a campfire and took it easy. Great weekend. Beth did see a fox running across the road on the way down to the camper. The trees are just starting to change. I think they will be peak in about two weeks or less. We did try something new this time though. The campground will, for $6, set up the camper. They will level it, put down the jacks, hook up the water, electric and sewer. The water and electric is not turned on but that takes – oh, about 10 seconds. It doesn’t sound like a great deal but saved us a bunch of time since it is dark when we get there. Also had them replace the element in our water heater. We had been operating on gas since the element had gone out but decided to try them out and see how they did. I was going to replace it myself and then found out it takes a special socket to do it. They did a good job – although it did take them a bit longer to do then they expected because it is hard to get at the element. Only three more weekends to go.

Kayden is going to go camping with us this weekend. April and Brian both have to work on Saturday and they asked if we would watch Kayden but with only a few more weekends to go we didn’t want to give up a weekend that is supposed to be this nice. So we offered to take him along. I think it is going to be rough on April to be away from him for two days. I don’t think that has ever happened before – even for 1 day. Hope Kayden doesn’t get homesick.

We went camping this weekend. We have moved to a new campground. This was our second weekend at the new campgournd. The one were at is in deep financial problems. They have been losing members and not making any sales to new members. I got on the board last year to try to help but there wasn’t much to be done. And now the campground manager is leaving and that is really going to hurt. We saw the handwriting on the wall so we bought a membership at a campground about 30 miles from the old one and about the same distance from home.  We drove to the old one on Saturday for a board meeting. I ended up resigning from the board at the meeting. I was going to wait until the October meeting since a friend of ours is the board president and I was going to stay for him but it got so ugly both at the open discussion portion of the board meeting and at the “executive session” that I said “No more – I’m out of here.” A second board member did the same thing about 10 minutes later. It was rough.

We had lunch with the campground manager and his wife and three other couples from the campground and then drove back to the new campground. That evening we went to a murder mystery dinner at the new campground. Had a great time. Had salad, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffed pork chops and steamed vegtable medley (I didn’t take any of those). For desert we had pineapple upside down cake.  Sat around the campfire until about 11:00 and then went to bed.

On Sunday we stayed at the campground long enough to welcome another couple from the old campground who also came over to the new campground. (That makes the third couple.) Then drove home and celebrated Jamie’s third birthday. Kelly had driven into town on Saturday. Jamie and Kelsey sure are growning fast.

Went to a differnt cmapground this weekend. It was really a great campground. Towed the camper over. This was the first time we had hooked up the camper on our own. Had a bit of problems with the fifth wheel. It is a slider hitch since we have a short bed and we could not get it into the towing position so we had to tow it over in the manuvering position. Will have the hitch checked later this week if we have time. Did a little fishing but not much luck. I caught two little fish the whole time. Oh well, we don’t keep them anyway. Had a campfire Saturday night until it started to rain. And wow, did it ever rain. We had a waste basket sitting outside the camper and had about 12 – 14 inches of water in it. The lake level rose about 3 feet over night. Sunday we went to see a blue grass band at the campground. They were pretty good. The fiddle player was a national champion.

On another note, my mother would have been 94 years old today. Driving back from the campground was rough. I always tried to call her on Sunday evenings and this one was more difficult than normal. A lot of quiet time in the car and maybe too much time to think about it. I don’t know if they celebrate birthdays and anniversaries in heaven but if they do, I’m sure she had a great time. And Tuesday will be the first anniversary that Mom and Dad have had together in 27 years.