Standiford Family Web Log

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.