Thursday Thoughts - Nordeman

Time brings change. Change takes time. Nichole Nordeman

Believe it or not we went to church with Nichole in the 90's before she went off to Nashville. She is a neat person. We also enjoyed her playing the piano. She was awesome, still is from what I can tell. Love to hear her music on the radio, too!

Mile Marker Thirty as in 3 - 0!

Another milestone...

 St Mark's Lighthouse - Florida...March 2015

MiRV and I started our journey over thirty years ago...we met in 1982. We weren't even friends. In 1983 that changed, in 1984 we were engaged and in 1986 married. And as they say the rest is history.  So here we are and it's 30 years later since that day. Can you say W-O-W?

I won't say I didn't think this day would come but really you don't give much thought to these milestones when you are saying "I do". Of course, I firmly believe in the "until death do us part" part. And certainly we have had our ups and downs, happiness and sadness, rewards and disappointments, we have had to work through issues, we still work hard at our marriage...every day. It is ongoing; it is a choice.  Marriage is not maintenance free, there is definitely upkeep, everyday really. If you do not keep up your marriage, I can promise you it will get away from you and there could be serious suffering.

I will be the first to tell you we are not always living the dream (GASP) or the happily ever after that you might think. Some would say that we tend to present that image. I would argue that you see what you choose to see. I also think we make a conscious choice to NOT air our dirty laundry so to speak. Have we discussed, in limited talk, our marriage with others? Sure, but I think we wisely guard our words. We were given good advice early on that spewing words of anger or disappointment to others is not something you should do with others...unless of course you rented their ears (professional counseling). Therefore, there are very, VERY few people you can or should confide in who will be able to let go of what you say when things have righted in your world. That person who you shared your moment of anger with just doesn't forget what you told them and sometimes there can be tension in the aftermath. It's just not a good idea to abundantly "share" about the your marital life so be careful who you chat with when you are spun up. For certain there might be a very good friend who can handle it but I still would be cautious and hesitant to recommend it.

 MiRVs first look at our daughter - OKC...March 1991

Our greatest joy and challenge has been the birth and rearing of the Daughter. She holds our heart; she is amazing. She has blessed us with another incredible chapter in our lives as she became a mother earlier this year and gave us a granddaughter. This my friends is beyond words...we have never loved so deeply. We are in love with her and relish being BeBe and LaLa. There are just not enough words for our newest love. What an indescribable joy we are experiencing...

 Our first look at our granddaughter - NE...March 2016

It is good that our lives our enriched with additions. We are thrilled to have so many family and friends who play such a crucial role in our lives. We know it is much better living life with others and we have a wonderful groups of "others" who love and inspire us, who hold us accountable, who encourage and love on us. We are blessed no doubt. We pray that our daughter continues to grow roots in her community and finds those others to do and enjoy life with to team up with to make memories to get through the good, the bad and the ugly.

This child...

The other crucial KEY factor in reaching this mark, I believe, is our faith. I won't even be so bold as to say our "strong" faith because there were (still are) days we felt our faith waiver. We have had our moments of crisis (still do). However, if we would not have had what I call a solid foundation and relationship with Jesus I feel we could have been in trouble. He has sustained and encouraged us in hard times, sad times. He is faithful, even when we are not. We are Christ followers and know without a doubt this is an integral part of any part of our successful marriage. I would not even want to speculate where we would be without Jesus.  I am thrilled to have done life with MiRV these last 30 years and look forward to many more years together. Life is good, not easy, not perfect, not without struggles but it IS good!

 

Union Covered Bridge - Missouri back road...May 2016

#30yesreally30yearsofmarriage
#sustaininglove

Thursday Thoughts - Bard

Although no one can go back and make a brand new start 

anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. 

Carl Bard

A BIG Hike

MiRV was planning to do a little hiking while we camped at the Frank Russell COE. Since it was only a 2.5 mile jaunt I thought why not tag along...after three hours and change we returned to find out that obviously the signage was WRONG and it was a whopping 8.7 mile hike. I hope I can move tomorrow. I also made the trek UP the hill to the shower house.
 

 

 MiRV got a chance to try out his hiking poles on a real trail.

Thank goodness there was shade...oh, yeah AND snakes! Someone may or may not have screamed like a girl. Hmmm, wasn't me, I didn't even see the darn thing til I had passed it and MiRV screamed. Since MiRV is in training for his AT he was packing with a 30 pound or so pack and thankfully we had plenty of water and snacks on this longer than we thought walk in the woods!

The reward was steak on the grill. Pretty sure I will sleep well tonight or maybe that's the wine that he also got to go with the steak! Yeah, he's a keeper! And speaking of this COE it's a quiet one! Not sure what it would be when they are busy but right now there are less than 10 of us and the park has 113 or so spots. Good shade, too. Shower house is average but you can't have everything. Night!

Back in MO

We left Iowa and have passed into the state we call home MISSOURI! Before leaving Iowa we stopped in at Fort Madison. Unfortunately, they had a break in overnight so we did not get to go to the Fort. However, unbeknownst to us we were in for a real treat when we decided to stop into the Historical Society Museum. The gentleman there gave us a personal tour and shared a wealth of knowledge on the town. It was educational and entertaining. We were sad to learn that the town is not on board with saving local history, historical artifacts and buildings. Sure it's gonna cost some money but some of these things are national treasures. It boils down to money, no way to pay for it. A shame; many small towns are facing the same issues.

 MiRV for President!!!

Glad we had time to stop at the old train station turned museum, it's fun to learn about the local area. This town definitely has a rich history, hope the historical society continues to preserve the neat items they have and hold their own with the town naysayers!

After leaving the Fort we headed for Quincy, IL to do a little shopping. We made a much needed Aldi stop and also procured coffee at BB&B as well as had a Starbuck's coffee treat along with a little Kohl's coupon/sale/clearance shopping for Trigger! We definitely found her a few deals and it was just fun to look too!

Our stop tonight will be a COE on Mark Twain Lake. We have some options so not sure which one we will end up at but I know one thing, there will be a shower house! I am looking forward to that! We will be staying a couple days to chillax since we have been on the go, go, go for the past 6 days! Gotta rest up so we can be ready to see Trigger! Then she and her momma will join us on a roadtrip to see family for a few days. Can't wait!!

Iowa Road Trippin'

So back to this Iowa trip. A couple years ago we came through on I-80 and stopped at the Amana Colonies, it was fun, then I learned about another Amish community that was just down the road and wished we would have gone there, too. Not to mention wanting to see the covered bridges. However, we were working with a little bit of a limited time frame on that trip so we skipped on in to Nebraska. This little trek was in part to take in those bridges and Kalona, IA.

We have had a good time trekking through Iowa the last few days. Iowa is really not a state I think of as a tourist mecca but let me tell you it's been great just traveling the back roads and toodling (that's a word in my world) around. It's so green right now. Everywhere you look is lush with every shade of green you can imagine interspersed with the yellows, too. Then there are the splashes of color from the many wild flowers. It's been incredibly pretty.

Imes Bridge and Clark Tower

We started off in Winterset, IA where the Bridges of Madison County book put this place on the map. Let me just tell you that getting to these bridges is a drive to include many gravel/dirt roads. While I loved seeing the bridges I DID NOT really appreciate traveling the dirt roads to do it. But those bridges are definitely a neat bit of eye candy. So after our self guided dirt roads bridge tour we headed back to town for ice cream at Frostee's and the city park. We needed something to perk us up after the much needed car wash and before hiking to the Clark Tower. The city park was really nicely maintained and there was a relocated covered bridge in the park as well. Since we are always up for a little walk we hiked the 1.5 or so up to see Clark Tower which also afforded a view of Madison County. After that we checked out the city campground which was unfortunately full so we headed on eastward. We explored a few overnight parking options before settling on Hickory Hills County Park. It was a nice overnight spot that was FREE. While it is off the beaten path, it was scenic and FREE, who doesn't like free! It was a Friday night and I think had a bit more traffic than might have been on a week night but we slept fine. After our overnight rest we took out the next morning for Kalona via Pella.

 There were sooooo many treats to choose from...but that apple bread was the winner.

Watching the klokkenspiel

Pella was the jackpot locale on this trip. Lovely, lovely little town with an incredibly neat town square to wander complete with working windmill, klokkenspiel and an awesome Dutch bakery. Goodness that Dutch apple cinnamon bread loaf did not last long, it was so light, fluffy and good. I know why my pants are so tight...anyway, Pella is also home to Pella windows. Pretty cool, it was a great friendly little town that has much to offer. I was really sad we had just missed the tulip festival. On our way into Pella we stopped at the Cordova Observation Tower. It's the tallest tower in a public park. There are 170 steps to climb to make it to the top which affords you a spectacular view. You will need 50 cents to climb the tower, as in 2 quarters, no change machines available to my knowledge and no attendant on duty. We just raided our laundry quarters and started climbing! Who needs clean socks anyway?!

Kalona was our next stop. Oh, gee, how shall I put it? Little disappointed. I'm not really sure what I was expecting but I wasn't expecting what we got. We did drive out (on a dirt road mind you, lol) to the local Amish bakery and secured rolls for our late lunch. Oh, my, they were tasty, they were wheat yeast rolls and made great ham rolls! We also indulged with a cinnamon roll...each. Yeah, about those tight pants...ugh! That my friends was the best stop of this town, the rural bakery! Since I am also hunting neat little wooden toys for Trigger we trekked on over to the country store (MORE dirt roads). While they had some unique items, and about 22 styles of black women's shoes they did not have any quality handmade wooden toys so we left empty handed. However, it you even need a BIG bag of lime jello powder this is your store! They had the BIGGEST bag of lime jello mix I have ever seen! LOL They also stocked every single item in the RADA catalog!

We found another county park for the night which was quite overpriced but quiet. Seriously, we paid $20 for an electrical hookup with water at the site and no shower house only vault toilets. I was a bit miffed but MiRV was tired, ready for a stop and we had already tried another park with no joy so we sucked it up, paid our money and got some rest. The other park we checked out was cheaper with a very dirty shower house on the river but it just didn't feel right for us so we motored on to Pollmiller. Upon arrival we found ourselves just shelling out the bucks to be done and tuck in for the night! Sometimes you just bite the bullet!

Tomorrow will take us back into MO. It's been such a fun trip, Iowa is so much more than I imagined! In fact I think we may need to return...there are some other areas that sound like they would be fun to explore! I love hitting a state with not much planned and then finding hidden gems like Pella. Looking forward to MO tomorrow.

Thursday Thoughts - Hemingway

We are all broken. That's how the light gets in.

Ernest Hemingway