*Critters we’ve seen on our
2012 trip so far: prairie dog, bison, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, mule
deer, llama, white tail deer, elk, grizzly, coyote, badger, Uinta ground
squirrel, black bear, yellow-bellied marmot, wolf, bullsnake, moose, wild turkey
*Birds we’ve seen on our 2012
trip so far: Western meadowlark, magpie, wild turkey, killdeer, osprey,
red-naped sapsucker, sandhill crane, bald eagle, mountain bluebird
*National Parks/Monuments
visited on 2012 trip so far: 3
*State Parks visited on 2012
trip so far: 1
[Click on any photo
to enlarge for better viewing.]
We arrived in St. Louis with plans to stay only about a
week or so. As you know we usually stay
at the KOA in Eureka just south of the city
limits, but since we weren’t going to stay a month and the daily cost was too
high, we opted to park in the Harrah’s Casino parking lot in Earth City
just west of the city limits. The far
lot in the back is where buses and semis park, and we had stayed there a couple
nights in the past.
Though we didn’t plan to stay in town long, we made plans
with a few people and Russ even fit in a couple rounds of golf. Most of our time was spent up in north
county but we also made a couple trips to the south county area.
One of those trips south was to see Russ’ brother and his
wife. Ron and Jackie live in the city of Wentzville,
but it’s a nice drive and we made plans to visit for a few hours. Jackie has an incredible flower garden on the
farm across from their house, and though the roses were fading, her mums were
in full bloom. An added bonus to this trip was that their son, Ronnie, and his
wife, Kim, were planning to be there, too, and we hadn’t sent them in a few years. We had a great visit, and it was just a shame we couldn’t stay longer.
Shortly after we arrived in town we learned that our friend,
Patty, would be having major surgery, and since their house was only about 15
min. from us, we offered to help out in any way we could. We surprised Steve the day of surgery and sat
with him at the hospital for 6 hours…we’re sure it made the time go by
faster. All turned out great, and she
was doing so well that she went home within a couple of days!
It was the perfect time to be in St. Louis because Cardinals
fever was high throughout the city. The
defending World Champions had not been counted to do much this season what with
all the personnel changes and injuries, but true to form, they constantly
battled back. Our team had clinched a
wild card slot into the post season,
and beat Atlanta
to advance to the NL Division Series, and then miraculously beat Washington to advance to
the NL Championship Series. However, that’s where the dream ended. San Francisco won out and
advanced to the World Series. We didn’t
attend any games in person but watched every single one on TV either at our
place or a friend’s.
Of course staying up in the north end of town put us closer
to one of our favorite places, Lombardo’s Restaurant (Lombardo’s), and we made sure
to go on a day when Angelo and Carmen were both working. We were able to visit a couple of times and
during one of those stops, Carmen asked if we’d like a couple tickets to Sunday’s
Rams game. Of course we said yes!
They were scheduled to play the Green Bay Packers, and we
arrived early to soak in some of the tailgating atmosphere. There were lots of
Packers fans with many wearing their signature “cheeseheads”, but one Rams fan
made sure everyone knew how he felt about the rivalry…what a hoot!
Inside we found our seats in the endzone only 7 rows from
the field, and soon Carmen, his wife, their daughter, and her son joined
us. Inside the dome sound is magnified,
and we could see there were quite a number of Packers fans, but it wasn’t until
their team
scored their first points that we realized just how many. The sound was so loud you would have thought
we were in Green Bay! I always think it’s fun to attend these games
in person but it would have been better had the Rams won…they lost 30 – 20.
While in town I got together with high school friends a couple
of times, whether at somebody’s house, the bowling alley, shopping, or a
restaurant. Just fun to get together. On one occasion, Gloria and I even made plans
to wear the matching Yellowstone t-shirts she
bought us when she and her husband visited. Think
anyone
mistook us for twins?? On another day we
visited her mom at her new apartment and had a nice visit.
Seems our stay kept getting extended a little longer for one
reason or another. The last thing that
extended it was when our fridge stopped working! Fortunately with Steve and Patty only living
15 min. away we borrowed a cooler from them and put a bunch of other stuff in
their spare refrigerator/freezer. Russ
found a place not far away to take the RV, and it took Kevin at Rec Tec (http://www.rectecinc.net/) only a couple
of minutes to discover it was a blown cooling unit. There had been a recall on the Norcold
refrigerators, but he was fairly certain this would not be covered. We returned to our casino home, and Russ
called Norcold to see what they would say. Of course, the initial answer was
no, so he went round with them.
They gave him another number to call and was told once the claim was
filed, it could take 4 – 6 weeks before we’d have an answer as to whether or
not it would be covered. Good grief! In
the meantime, while Russ did a lot of internet research, Kevin did some checking for us and found it would cost about
$2,500 for a replacement unit plus labor (about $100/hr), or a whole new
fridge for about $4,000 plus labor (labor would take about 8
hours…yikes!) For those who don’t know
RVs, the reason for the high costs is because the fridge needs to be able to run on electric, battery, or propane (for when you have no hookups like in the
casino lot). This little setback drastically altered our
plans as we decided it was best that we head south to FL right away instead of going east because
whether or not it was covered under the recall, there were more options available in Orlando. We bought a 70 qt. cooler, stocked it with
the bare necessities, returned Steve and Patty's cooler, and left the remainder of our groceries with them for their use.
They say everything happens for a reason, and there were
obviously a couple reasons why our usual Eureka
campsite didn’t work out this trip putting us closer to where we needed to be. Amazingly
nobody from the casino bothered us during the 3-1/2 weeks we camped in their
lot, and part of the reason may have been because they had recently been sold
and were in the middle of changing over from Harrah’s to Hollywood.
We shared meals and good times with several friends, and though we may not have seen everyone we would have liked, all in all it was
a great visit.
On our way south, we parked at 
years since they’re last match). Anne played as well while I was her personal cart
driver. The match was close, but Henrik
prevailed much to his delight! (However that still puts him one win behind
Russ…tee hee) That night they
insisted on treating us to dinner at P.F. Chang’s (www.pfchangs.com), but we think it was
because Henrik wanted to brag on his win. He made a point of showing our server
his winning score card! LOL The meal and the company were wonderful as
always.
We decided to stay a couple more
days at 
Thanksgiving was spent with our
friends in 
big day as she was already planning to
cook a big dinner and had other company coming. There were to be no ifs, ands,
or buts about it…the matter was settled.
We were all coming to her place for Thanksgiving and were not to bring a
thing! There were about a dozen of us at
Paula and Jim’s, and “the 
boys” had their own table. Dinner was at 1pm, and plans were made to
head down to The Villages around 5pm to watch that night’s band at the outdoor
gazebo, Rocky and the Rollers (http://rockyandtherollers.com/)
playing hits from the 50s and 60s. The
audience really gets into it, dancing, clapping, and singing 
along (our turkey
day hosts are seated on the right in the picture above left).
Thanks so much to Paula and Jim for including us and making the holiday
special. And thanks to Beth and Dick for
being such great hosts and friends who really know how to make folks feel at
home.
