Arkansas

I thought I better get back on here and finish this trip report, because too many things have been happening since then.

After Checotah, we stopped in Sallisaw and Roland. The scenery was pretty flat and boring part of the way, and when we finally got into Arkansas, it was pretty much the same thing. I thought I was in a suburb of Fort Smith when I got off in Roland, but we still had a ways to go. We stopped at a Wendy's/Pilot combo. I found wifi and sat for about half an hour, before we decided to go on. It was after 9:30 pm when we got to Roland. We had driven 176 miles from Shawnee.

When we crossed the Arkansas border, about 10 that night, I was the only car (I thought) on the freeway. I slowed down to read the "Welcome to Arkansas" signs. They also had a sign that said, "Speed Limits strictly enforced." I was probably doing 40-45. I saw a highway patrolcar as I passed the signs. He pulled out behind me, but after a mile I noticed he wasn't there anymore. Whew! I wasn't sure what I'd done wrong.

We stopped at Clarksville to look for a Walmart, then went on to Russellville. It was a dark night, and right before we got to Clarksville, we saw a beautiful, lit, white cross perched on top of a mountain. Thomas called my mom, who let him know she was trying to sleep.

When we got to Russellville, we spent the night at the Flying J. I could see the mountains surrounding the area. It looked interesting even in the dark. The next morning was wet and foggy, but I still found the area beautiful. We wanted to look for Walmart, so we drove thru the town. It had all the chain stores you would expect to see in a city, but still looked charming with the mountains rising up around it. I would like more time to explore Russellville later.

The BIG TRIP

On Nov. 12th, Mom and I were going to a Fiber Artist's meeting. I had started looking at what the local libraries were offering, and I had thought about signing up for a genealogy workshop that one was offering. Whenever I get on a computer and start looking up ancestors, I cannot stop. It is like an addiction to me. Anyway, I was making plans to do things while waiting to leave. I knew I had to be doing something. I had also been praying, asking God why we were still here after planning for 2 1/2 years. No answer. Well, that Thursday night, while driving to the meeting, my youngest son and daughter kept trying to call me. Thomas was at the house with our phone, and Mom didn't have very many minutes. When I called him back, he said I needed to wait. I said something about him saying it was an emergency, why was he making me wait, and he said, "You told me to call you the next time police were talking to me". Seems the police officer was standing there, while he talked to me. It surprised me that he actually let him. The people my son was staying with assaulted him, and because he said a cuss word, they called the police. The police officer was not happy with them, told them they had to give my son seven days to get out, but nicely found a motel for my son and his family to stay in at a reduced rate. My son was calling me while this was happening.

They did not have money to find another place; my son had just been laid off (no business); and they hadn't been there long enough to make the kind of friends you could turn to. They negotiated to stay at their house a few more days, while on our end, my entire family was trying to come up with a way to help them. The best thing to me was bus tickets for them to go somewhere else. Remember, I wasn't able to leave yet. And we didn't have the funds to help them. Well, after lots of prayer on everyone's part, our church donated the amount we would need whether we sent bus fare or went there ourselves. We thought it would be enough, but turns out it wasn't. But before we left, we ran into my daughter-in-law's aunt, and she handed us almost what the church did. Between the two, we had enough for us to go. We got everything ready and took off!

Thomas couldn't drive, so I had to do all the driving. On one o'clock Monday afternoon, we left Shawnee, OK. Our first stop, Okemah Love's store. We wanted to stop there, because this was our exit every week, when I worked in Wetumka once a week. It was a "nostalgia" stop. My plan was to stop every 50 miles or so. People kept asking why are you stopping so much? I wanted my van to rest (this was normal driving for me), and my bladder doesn't go much farther than that. I was drinking fluids almost the whole time. When we got back on the highway, I told Thomas this was new territory we were riding together.

I was going to stop in Henryetta, but decided to push on to Checotah. I was tired. I didn't get any sleep the night before, and we left the house in Macomb about 530 that morning. I got to see my oldest before I left. He was already at work when I called him. Anyway, in Checotah, I went to Walmart to get a couple of things and I rented a movie. We went to the Flying J across the highway. The plan was for me to sleep a couple of hours, while Thomas watched the movie. I place my laptop on the dash, when we watch movies, and instead of going to bed, I leaned back in my seat. Well, the movie was "Shadowheart", and it's a little hard to sleep, while a western (gunfighting) is playing less than two feet from your face. But I was OK; I felt better when it was over. It was 330 pm when we got to Checotah; and it was about 830pm when we got back on the highway.

It seemed like a lot of time spent, and we were only about 85 miles from our starting point, but I wasn't done yet. A sidenote: Besides stopping every 50 miles, I was also doing it my "Walmart way". I have a 2010 atlas that lists all the Walmart. My theory on traveling is to stick to the Walmart's. If you are used to strange Walmarts, like I am, than you always feel at home. That was something we noticed on our trip. In every town almost, we found the same stores we were use to. And the people looked and sounded like people we would meet at home. People move around so much, that you won't meet many that have been somewhere all their lives. My husband's family is one of the few. My family is scattered everywhere. I was born in California, and my mom is from back east. Both my parents' families moved all over the place. But I digress. Another thing about the trip was that we were very comfortable staying at the Flying J. We were use to it, because we would spend nights at one in Ardmore. Well, it's almost 530am right now, so I will continue this in my next blog. Goodnight. Or good morning.

Mom's

It has been over a month since I wrote last, and it has been a very busy month. At the end of October, we were out of funds, food, and gas. We have been adjusting downward, learning to live on just my husband's disability. It pays the main bills and gas. Nothing left for food or those other extras. Ha ha. Anyway, Mom invited us to stay with her for a "visit." "Bring the dogs; it will be fine." Well, we invaded and gradually took over. Just kidding. But she did start staying up later with us, as we started watching more TV and watching movies every night. She had a nice wooden fenced yard, and we were able to take Bengy with us. He was the only thing keeping us at the house every night. And we only needed to go to Shawnee once a week, which took almost a week's gas allowance to go to do business and collect the mail. But we were able to keep expenses down, and she fed us, which made Thomas happy. Seems he thinks I'm starving him.

The problem I had was that I felt like I was losing myself and sight of what we were doing. We were suppose to be getting ready to go, but we were becoming comfortable just sitting at Mom's. The dogs were comfortable; we were comfortable; and Mom was getting used to us being there. My van became not our home, but just a vehicle that I drove. We rarely went to it, except to get something. I wasn't able to walk anymore, or use the computer like I use to. Mom had dialup, and sometimes it wasn't worth the time it took to do very much. We were losing sight of our dream......our purpose......

Leaving

We are drawing close to going now that the pups have new homes. But Thomas has been sick, and he may need to see his doctors before we go. I've got a few things to still get out of the house, and pick up the yard again since the dogs aren't there to drag things up. I need to put curtains up, and get a portapotty, unless I want to keep a bathroom close by! I wanted to get a tuneup first, but our finances can't afford that right now, but the mechanic said everything looked good. What else? The real estate agent said someone looked at our land yesterday. That's another yeaaa! Things are getting done, and we hope to be on the road soon, Lord willing. Thomas has been having problems with the really cold temps now. We are hoping to stay between 50 and 70. May God bless you all!

Praise and disappointments

Praise! To God Almighty! Someone took the pups! Yeaaaa! We still have Bengy if anyone is interested. Ha ha ha.

Disappointment-Talked to a lot of people today that I have given my blog address to. Their usual comment: "I thought you were gone!" I would ask: "Did you read my blog?" Everyone's answer: "Nope!" Oh, well.

Frustration

Then I came to use my computer before heading back to the house. I am trying to stay out there more, because Thomas and I are trying to learn how to live off just his check. There was just too much month left. When my kids moved out of state, and I wasn't driving them anymore, my gas consumption cut in half. I only spend 10 dollars a day now. That is what I am figuring on spending when we travel. That is about 60 miles a day. Well, if I stay at the house, I am only driving 10 miles a day (to the country store and back). I saved some spending the night.

Anyway, my frustration tonight was when I was trying to look for somewhere online to take these puppies. The rescues want only full-blood dogs, and one even asked for 75. apiece. Shoot, I could probably offer that in the paper, and get all kinds of takers. But I know there is a reason we still have them. They are beautiful, healthy dogs, but no one even wants to look at them! It is one of the main reasons we are still here. I spent over an hour looking online. What was funny yesterday? We were given a person's name, and then we saw him on the front page of the newspaper. He had just picked up 153 dogs from a puppy mill! Well, I thought, he's not going to want my 4. But then he adopted out almost every one of them today! People were lining up at the newspaper office to get one! He said if he had 500 small dogs, he could have given them all away. Maybe he does have room for my 4. :) Do you?

Car trouble

Well, we have been hanging out at the ole homestead since Saturday. But Tuesday night, we discovered we were leaking antifreeze. We came into town Wednesday, and had our good :) friend Jeff check it out for us. It was leaking at the back on the engine. It was late afternoon, so they couldn't do anything for us last night. By then it was leaking pretty good, so we couldn't go back to the house. We stayed in town at Thomas' parents' old place (the neighbors know our van), and left out early this morning. I had to move all my stuff out of the front seat, so they could get the "doghouse" off. He found the leak; it was a small split in the side of a small metal pipe. The new pipe from the dealer wouldn't be available till late Friday afternoon, so the mechanic put JVWeld on it. The only problem was we had to sit there for 4 hours. I had asked him when I came in if he knew we lived in our van, and he said, yes, that Jeff had told him. Anyway, we watched a movie on the laptop, played with the dogs, and just listened to music. He also checked my fuses to see why I don't have power ports and lights. It wasn't a fuse; he said it was probably a short. Anyway, the leak is fixed, and he didn't charge me anything! He just said, "Have a nice trip!"

I have always freaked out anytime I have had car trouble. I couldn't be without a car when I was working all over the state. But Jeff has always helped me keep on the road. He always got my car right into the shop, and loaned me a car to get to work. I guess I got spoiled. But then their shop closed down, and the dogs started going with me, so I found out how the real world has to deal with it. But not really. I've had a lot of people tell me how blessed I have been by my church, because they are always there to make sure I stay on the road. They have blessed me over and over by helping with my car repairs. I know they were being used by God, but they are great people! I'm told not every church is like that! I just wish I could take them with me. But this week, when my car started messing up, God said He was not punishing me (my usual reaction of panic), that he was going to take care of it. Thank You, Lord!

Our Other Companions (part one)

When Thomas said we were going to start traveling, we were just going to take Boogie. Then as Weenie got bigger, I decided to take her too. We found homes for the other puppies, and we needed to find homes for Peanut, Blanca, and Daisy. But we also had a cockatiel and a herd of goats. I told Thomas that I was not getting rid of my goats until we were leaving the driveway!

We weren't sure what to do with Pete, our cockatiel. I was finding out that people travel with a lot of different animals, but we didn't know if we should take him. They live to be very old, and it is suggested that you put them in your will. Two months later, we found him dead in his cage! We had had him over 5 years, and there was nothing wrong with him.

Then Blanca went in heat, but my son said "We're not doing this again!" so he ran Peanut back to his ex-wife's. Too late! The end of August, she had her second litter of pups. She had 4: one little boy and 3 beautiful girls. I got requests early. A couple were for out of state, so I was hanging on to them until we left. I thought we were leaving soon. They became Pepper (or Lil Boy), Pumpkin, Freckles, and Bingo.

Clinton called me at work one day, and told me that he found Blanca paralyzed. He put her and the pups in the bathtub so they would stay all together. The puppies were 4 weeks old. We had the van by then, so since I was so busy with work, I fixed a bed for her and put her in the van with the puppies in their plastic tub. I had to feed the puppies myself, because she wasn't able to nurse. It took a lot of work. Two days later, Blanca is up and back to normal, and looking at me like, "Hey, you got them, I'm done!" Do you think maybe she was faking it? Nah, I know she wasn't.

Remember, during the summer, besides working, I was also taking Thomas to OKC for physical therapy 3 times a week. OKC was over 70 miles from our house. Then we would travel down 35 to get any stores I had south of Norman. We were very busy. And it was getting harder for Thomas to help me with the goats. I wanted to keep them; they were my babies. But then I started thinking they were the reason we were still there. My not letting them go was the reason we were still there. I had 3 registered pygmies, and the offspring from them and 2 other females I had. I was up to twelve. I paid 700. for my registered pygmies and had traded my boer goats for their transportation. I didn't want to lose them if we weren't leaving. And I didn't want to sell the herd for less than a thousand. I could have gotten that if I had advertised on the internet, but I didn't have the time or the computer. People around here wouldn't give more than 50 a head. And they were all pregnant. I sold them for less than half of that, and gave away a lot of goat "stuff" with them. Then I found out one died in childbirth, and the rest were sold. I was very upset, but thought that was what I needed to do to leave.

Pictures

As I am able to load pictures onto my computer, I will add them to some former entries. I am adding some to "baby mo" and "boogie too", so check those out.

Weenie

Ok, she didn't change everything, but she did help me through a very hard time.

When Boogie came into our lives was right before Thomas said we would be traveling. She was going with us at the time to keep Thomas company. Remember, we just had a Toyota at the time. But during the time Boogie came to live with us, Blanca (our white chihuahua) had puppies. She had 5: three black and white, a tan and white, and one white one. One of the black and whites didn't make it.

My ex daughter in law was moving into an apartment, and she could not take her male chihuahua. My son thought it would be great if Blanca got pregnant and we could sell puppies.

Don't do that! We had tried that years earlier with Dachsunds years earlier, and we lost money. And we told him that. Anyway, she got pregnant. There was one female I liked. I called her Beatoven, because she looked like a St. Bernard. And one I thought was kind of ugly. I took them both to show, when I had a buyer. She picked Beathoven. I thought, "What am I going to do with you?" to the other.

This was my Weenie. She was built like her daddy, Peanut. She had pencil-thin legs that looked like they would break easily. She was very tiny. When she was about six months old, she started going with us too.

She was feisty. Boogie was only two months older, so they were growing up together. When they were very young pups, Boogie had already outgrown her. I would come home from work, and want to know why Weenie had small cuts on her neck. Then I discovered Boog had cuts on her nose. Boogie was grabbing her around the neck, and she was hanging from Boogie's nose! We had to put a stop to their roughhousing.

Weenie would sit in my lap whenever we would stop. She would growl at the other pups to tell them I was hands off! When we would stop at truckstops, she would be the one that would yap at the big trucks that went by. She was always quiet, until one day, when we first got the van, she got knocked out the door by a small fan. We were parked, and a man was walking by. She jumped up, and started barking at him, like she thought he had pulled her out. We had problems with her barking after that.

We have multiple pet names for our dogs. They know them all, and they know what names go with what dogs. All our dogs have "B" names, even the ones that don't. Weenie's was "Binky." Thomas said he named her that after "Binky and the Brain." We said, that's "Pinky." My name for her was "Grasshopper." She just reminded me of one when she would stand up on her hind legs and wave her arms.

Weenie is not with us anymore. On Sept. 9, 2008, Weenie ran out under a neighbor's truck as he flew by. She knew not to be in the street. It was a cold morning, and though a usually leash the dogs even in our yard, I didn't that morning. I let them out of the van to go to the bathroom and ran to the porch to call them in. Weenie looked at me, then I saw Bengy run for the road. I heard the truck and called Thomas who was in the house. Bengy stopped, and I saw Weenie wag her tail, and drop to the ground. Thomas went to get her, and the way he held her, she looked like her neck was broken. But she didn't have a mark on her. We think she ran under the truck, and had a heart attack or died of shock. I found a picture of her later, where she was happy and playing, and she had the same expression. She died doing something she loved.

But I was heartbroken. I kept blaming myself, but people who knew her said it was bound to eventually happen. I missed her terribly. It took a while for me to bury her. I couldn't do it. And I told Thomas I couldn't move yet, and leave her there. We didn't want to live there, and I didn't want to leave her there. My daughter couldn't understand why I was so upset. She'd say, "Mom, you don't even like dogs." And later that week, she called to say that she was pregnant! I said, "If it's a girl, would you like to call her Weenie?" She said, "Mom, I am not naming my baby after your dog."

Teaser

Read tomorrow and find out who this is, and how she changed my life.

Baby Mo

Ok, I get a lot of strange looks when I tell people the name of my blog. Baby Mo is what I called my red 97 Windstar minivan. Thomas and I had been wanting to travel for 7 months when we bought the minivan. We had traveled on my job within 70 miles in the Toyota, and we had taken our dog with us. She was starting to take up the back seat, and the Toyota had passed 220K miles, so we started looking at vans. We bought the minivan from a couple at church whose kids had grown. We took out the middle seats. I put curtains in it. We put in an icechest, pantry box, and a box for my paperwork. We were so excited. We called it "Baby Mo" for motorhome. I was going to put letters on the back window that said, "I want to be a motorhome when I grow up!" We put 70K miles on that van in a year and a half. The front end finally gave up on it. But not until we had traveled all over the southern half of Oklahoma. We totally enjoyed it.

Technically, our big blue van, is Baby Mo II. It is a 97 Ford 350 Econoline 15 psg. former church van. It has a v10 engine. I didn't know they went higher than a v8. It used to say on the van "Heritage Church-A Home for your heart-Shawnee, Oklahoma." Well, we couldn't keep advertising it as a church van, so I had to take off some letters. Now it says, "A Home for our Heart-Oklahoma." I get a lot of strange looks now, and even some hostility it seems, especially when a dog pops up in the window. I am thinking about taking off the rest of the letters, because some people still mistake it for a church van. I am going to be doing some more renovations to it, but it is still in the planning stage. I will post pictures later.

Missing family

My son and his wife moved out of state 3 weeks ago. They took my youngest grandbaby. I volunteered to keep him for them. :)- But they wouldn't go for it. I watched him (ahem, I mean them) get on that bus for a 16 hour trip. They wanted me join them soon, but I don't know when I will get to leave.

Now they are going through a rough time with illnesses and possibly losing another baby, and I can't be there with them. I miss them lots, lots, lots. Hope to see them soon. Hope they know we love them ( even my lovely daughter in law). She told me tonight that she loved us and missed us. I hope she is feeling better, and they are in my prayers.

I love you kids.

Profile

Taking a break from the gloomy side.

Wrote out my profile and interests. I know my family shares most of my interests, but who else is out there? Let me know.

Detours

I'm taking a break from thinking so hard. My brain is in overload.

We are a little disappointed that we didn't get to leave this weekend. Thursday was the big day to take off. But in every plan that we make without making sure that it's Him and not us, we have to wait. Did that make sense?

We were going to Bartlesville this weekend to see the Fur Trader's Rendezvous. It is similar to a Mountain Man's Retreat that we went to in Tecumseh and enjoyed. Just a different time period and area. Thomas and I are very much into historical type things. I relate them to my family history, and Thomas just likes old stuff. We have collected quite a few antiques over the years just because we like them. Nothing expensive, just authentic country type things. We like wood furniture and log houses. We enjoy the outdoors (ok, the weather has to be NICE for me to be in it), and I loved my goats! I still miss them.

Anyway, we still have the lab puppies and Benjy to find homes for, so we couldn't leave them. I was going to leave the house unfinished, but we have gotten everything out we wanted. I just had to make sure I got all my photos and albums and books out. We still find stuff. And anything in the old house is ruined. I can't find two baby books, and I hope they are in storage. Plus, now the van has a little indigestion which I need to check out. Plus we would like to get the dogs' papers in order. Still so much to do!

I am scheduled to work two jobs in Texas in mid October, but I probably better cancel those, and reset our leave date. Then we may just head straight out for Tennessee and South Carolina. I am so anxious.

We moved the seat in the van, and now, I have two rooms, plus my office! My office still needs a little organization, but I have a real living room and bedroom! Now to cover all those windows!

Our Trials (part 2)

The picture I put on today is of Thomas when we first got the Windstar. I put curtains up.

I feel I got distracted yesterday. When I was talking about things going wrong, I was referring to what happened after we decided to travel. I was still working 2 jobs. Thomas had not worked in several years, because of his physical problems. He broke his hip when he was 38. That caused him problems, but he was mainly dealing with his neuropathy in his arms and legs. The neuropathy is caused by cervical stenosis, which means his neckbones are bent in the middle and pointing into his spinal cord. This is caused from Klippel-Feil Syndrome (a congenital deformity of his neckbones being fused together in 2 places). We did not find out about any of this until the late 90s.

Then within one month of him saying we were traveling, he went paralyzed in one hand and arm. Two days later, it was the other arm. The prognosis: radial nerve palsy. The doctors sent him to physical therapy 3 times a week. I was working 2 jobs, driving him to his appointments, and taking care of him physically, plus everything else at home! I quit American Greetings. Clinton, our oldest, used to roll his cigarettes for him, but after me feeding him oatmeal twice, he learned how to feed himself!

Our Trials

I don't want anyone to think that this was a simple journey to get to this point. It never is. I can tell you, that when we decided to do this, all hell broke loose. Oops! Can I say hell here? It is a place; a point of reference. Like when I say I have been married almost 28 years, and the first 15 were hell (usually spoken in a hushed voice). I mentioned that Thomas is "bipolar." I put this in quotations because this was not his original diagnosis; it is just one that people have heard. Thomas use to be so bad, that he would sleep 22 out of 24 hours, and when he was awake, we would wish he would go back to bed!

But he got better. We started a bait shop, that we ran out of our barn. It became so popular, that the shop in town decided to retire. We did it for 3 summers, and Thomas became more sociable. But then a drunk tripped on our flooring, and we decided we better quit, before something bad happened.

We have had our share of things happen to us, as I'm sure most have. This started out as a travelouge, and I am sure I am not going to uncover our deepest darkest secrets (at least, I hope I don't go there), but I realize there are a variety of people here that have no idea what we are doing, and several that have thought that we have lost our minds! Well, maybe that's why they call me "Willie Wonka"!

Our vehicles

When Thomas announced that we would be traveling, I was driving a Toyota Corolla. It was an older car, but it got 36 mpg. I was paid mileage on my job, and I actually made money driving it. It had gotten over 220K miles on it, so when I paid it off, I bought a minivan from someone at church. I had put over 50K miles on the Toyota in the year I had it, so I knew I needed something with low miles. The Windstar had over 150K on it, but I figured it would be ok. In a year and a half, I put 70,000 miles on it and the engine was still going. But I knocked the axles out. Then I borrowed the church's van, and after 10.000 miles in 3 months, I knew I needed to buy it.

Now this was not without problems. I went from 38 miles a gallon to 18. And with the Ford 350, I am doing about 12. Plus there have been other difficulties which I will explain later.

What Brought Us Here

Thomas and I had been in Macomb for over 20 years. I had quit my job as administrative assistant and hiring manager for the local McDonald's stores, and I had reentered the field of merchandising. I was a book vendor when I started at McDonald's, and I worked both jobs and homeschooled for a year after starting there. I was and always have been a workaholic.

Two and a half years ago, besides my working two jobs (market research and American Greetings), we were also trying to farm our acreage, Wisdom Acres. WA was not going anywhere, because I was never home and Thomas couldn't do the work that needed to be done while I was gone.

I told him one day that he needed to pray as long as it took, and then tell me what we needed to be doing. The next day, he came to me and said, "We are suppose to sell everything and travel." What!? I knew this must be God, because this was not MY husband! My husband wanted to be buried where we lived. He would never leave his house, his land, his home, the county, the state, etc. Thomas would not leave! So I said, OK, but then I kept waiting for him to change his mind (which was something else he would do frequently. Thomas is "bipolar.")

But he never did.