meanwhile back at the ranch

Made it back to the Manor around 2 pm and now unpacking and resting.  This was a very good trip with a delightful weekend visit with daughter(s) and granddaughter.

The trip was uneventful except for the road construction, which is always going on somewhere along this route, and traffic congestion in areas where it is to be expected.  Now it's back to the usual for these old folks.  Back to Mall walking and doctors visits and an occasional trip to the grocery.

on the return trip

This morning we left Catonsville, MD around 8 am heading back westward toward the Manor.  There have been no problems and the traffic has not been too much of a hassle so we are now in our Best Western motel in Frankfort, KY which is just a few miles west of Lexington so in the morning we won't have that cities morning rush traffic to contend with.

Tomorrow, our trip will be 444 miles which is 100 miles less than today's trip.  My plan was to do a few more miles the first day while we are fresh and then the second day won't be so tiring.

baby time

First I want to show another of Bella's artwork.  The girl definitely does have some talent, I believe.  This piece of her work is hanging on the wall in Phyllis' guest (cat's) bedroom.

This afternoon we went to Tammy's house for a visit.  Tammy is one of Phyllis' best friends and she claims to be our number 1 daughter and that Phyllis is number 2.  Tammy has two daughters and the eldest just got married last year.  Today JoAnn was able to hold Tammy's grandson Axle.  He is about 7 weeks old.  She held him for quite awhile and then it was feeding time so she got that pleasure also.  He was so sweet and didn't mind a substitute grandma holding him.  Tammy was babysitting while his mother Megan was at work.

Tomorrow morning we turn the wheels back westward and head toward the Martin Manor.

Happy Birthday Bella

This morning we had a nice time with Phyllis and a second game of Hand and Foot, the card game.  This time it looked like I had the game won until the last hand when Jo came on like gangbusters and beat me for the win.

Yesterday I posted pictures of Phyllis' kitties and now here are pictures of her fish tanks.

her koi, she has plans for a much larger tank in the near future

 her betta

I regret that I didn't think to take a couple of pictures while we were visiting with Bella and her mother but she gave us this picture to display back at home and think of her.  Her only family she has now is her mother so she calls us grandma and grandpa, which we are happy for, Phyllis is her aunt.  She is now seven years old with a birthday coming up in three weeks.  She let us celebrate an early birthday today with Jo giving her an afghan that she crocheted this past winter plus a rag doll that Jo had made some time ago.  Also with Phyllis' help we gave her an android tablet.  She was extremely happy with all, especially the tablet.  Jo had also made a larger afghan for her mother Toni.

Phyllis met Toni as a server at the diner she often used.  Toni now has changed jobs to a local Cracker Barrel but remains friends plus she helps Phyllis with care and cleaning of her house while Phyllis is Bella's babysitter at times.

sweet Bella

 These are some of Bella's art work that she gave us.  She made the drawings and then had them reduced and mounted on refrigerator magnets.

our grandkits

Had a very nice day with Phyllis and her two kitties, our grandkits.

This is the eldest Rosie

 and this is Ouisa the youngest

 Ouisa in the cat tree

The two are not pals so this is a standoff where right after this pic was taken there was an abrupt parting of the ways.  They put up with each other.

We had the grand tour of how Phyllis has improved her home arrangement of rooms and new wall decorations.  She has had the help of a good friend Toni to make the improvements happen.  Toni is planning to fix dinner for us tomorrow and we will get a chance to visit with her and her daughter Bella (our adopted granddaughter) for a little while.  Granddaughter Bella will have her 8th birthday in a few weeks so we will celebrate that with her tomorrow.

not a lake view

Here is a picture out our seventh floor window, definitely not a lake view.

We are on our way to Phyllis' house for the day.

Now in the Baltimore area

Made it to our motel around 4 o'clock this afternoon.  The drive over the past two days was fairly uneventful.  Yesterday we made it to Morehead, KY where we had a very nice dinner at Reno's Roadhouse before checking into the Best Western.  For the total trip of approx 1000 miles Lexington, KY is close to half way and I like to make it past that point so our following morning start doesn't have the Lexington morning rush time traffic to contend with.  On the return trip we have plans to stop just on the west side of Lexington in Frankfort, KY.

Our motel here in Catonsville is a Holiday Inn Express which is very nice.  We called Phyllis when we arrived and she came over to our room for a visit before we all went out for dinner.  Tomorrow we will go to her house and have the whole day to enjoy her company.

One big difference from making this trip with the camper vs the car is the fuel mileage.  Yesterday's drive through Illinois, Indiana, and mid-Kentucky was the first tank full for this trip and our actual hand calculated miles per gallon was 29.2, wow, the best economy I have ever received from any of our vehicles.  Much better that the 9-10 mpg that we would get with the truck and camper.  Today's fuel economy was not as good as yesterday because of the mountains in western Kentucky, West Virginia, and western Maryland.  Still today's tank full was with a calculated rate of 25.9.  Our average around home, city driving, is a 23.5 mpg.

A different form of travel

We're off again tomorrow morning but this time not with the camper.  We have made the decision to sell our truck and camper and from now on we will make our trips in our car using motels.

Tomorrow we make a well known drive on our way to visit with daughter Phyllis near Baltimore.  When making this same trip in the camper it was a three days drive with two nights in campgrounds along the way.  This time by auto it will be a two day drive with one motel about halfway.

The purpose of this trip is to visit with Phyllis and her Baltimore family of friends.  Also I will be able to get some father's day hugs from my daughter.

I will continue to post along the way whenever possible and with motel WiFi it should be easier than with iffy WiFi in the woods around a campground.  There just won't be nice pictures of a lake out our front door.