Monday, September 29, 2014

Sept 26th-27, 2014 Cahokia RV Parque....St Louis sightseeing

Friday September 26, 2014 After leaving Hi-Tide our destination today is Cahokia RV Parque in Cahokia, Illinois. I don't really know where Cahokia is.....all I know St Louis is just across the bridge!
We arrived at the RV park not in time for dinner as usual, our distance wasn't that great, this time we arrived in time for lunch! I made chicken salad for our lunch....too bad Lennie finished off the grapes this morning! The chicken salad was still good....minus the grapes!

This is a nice RV Park, especially if you want to visit the St Louis area. We're only here for 2 nights, but if we were to come back to the St Louis area, we would stay here again.
                                                         I'm not sure about Otis tho.......

                                                  part of this RV Park was pretty spooky!!!

                     Good thing we got Otis in before dark, then he would have been spooked!?!

The sun is setting, calling it a night!

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Our last Hurrahs of Illinois

Sunday September 21,2014
We are on our last few days here in Illinois, time to wrap things up!?! Before Lennie retired, we still managed to make it to Illinois once during the early summer. At that time, no matter what the month was, we always had ONE combined birthday get together for all 8 of our grand kids. We called it the ALL TOGETHER BIRTHDAY PARTY. The cousins really enjoyed getting together for that occasion! After we lost Jacob I could not bring myself to have that birthday celebration anymore, it just hurt too much......Now when we're in Illinois we visit the grand kids in separate outings, mainly because they all live in different directions!As September comes to an end we are going to have one last get together with everyone. It is Kevin's 44th birthday & Tammy's 47th birthday. Really.....our kids are that old!?! We're meeting everyone at the Olive Garden in St.Charles,Illinois


All the kids bunched together & sat at one end of the table. It WAS SOOOOOO LOUD! Oh wait a minute, that wasn't the kids.....that was Kevin!!!! Who let Kevin sit so close to the kids!?!


The young kids LOVE sitting by Kevin because he cuts up with them sooooo much!!
We had a good time, can't go wrong with Olive Garden, the kids loved being with each other too!

Wednesday September 24, 2014 Tonight is The Taste of Sandwich! That's when all the businesses in downtown Sandwich have a little taste sample of something yummy! I should not have eaten lunch today! Tickets for the Taste are $6.00 & you get your money's worth. Lana rode to the Taste with Lennie & me, poor Lee was working.....we met Chris & Bill at the ticket line. In the ticket line I also saw someone I knew from over 40 years ago....& while walking around the Taste I saw my old Supervisor from BRK Electronics from over 30 years ago!

We missed you Lee!!!

Saturday, September 27, 2014

ooohs & aaahs of Illinois!

            No story necessary for the pictures you're viewing! The ooohs & aaahs of Illinois....'nuff said!






This one is special....it's SUNRISE!(I don't see sunrise that often!?!)








I wasn't sure where to stick this picture in at, is it a OOOH or an AAAH!?!

The best part of our Illinois trip.....EATING!?! Family Shots

Since we were visiting Illinois when most our family & friends were either working or at school, most our get togethers involved eating!!!(Some of these pictures will be repeats!) The eating started Labor Day Weekend
& continued!
Out for Mexican with Lana (I lost a filling in my                                                                                                                                         tooth here!?!)
Leif, Lennie & myself at the Blackstone                                                                                                                                                                    Restaurant

Otis & Sophie waited at home but BOTH were                                                                                                                      rewarded with a McDoubles!!!!

At Red Robin(Yummmm!) with Tammy & kids

Fireside Grill Restaurant in Sugar Grove with                                                                                                                                     Chris & Bill

Papa & Reese eating Mexican fare in Chicago!

Chinatown!

Lee,Lana, Lennie & myself at TACO TUESDAY                                                                                                                                                 in Ottawa.

With Mike & Susan Freund  in Libertyville

Chris & I with Martha Thomas & Betsy Hartman, friends & neighbors from over 40 years ago! At Pal Joey in Batavia.

Girls lunch out  at Emerson Creek Pottery Barn in Oswego.

"Our Clan" at the Olive Garden in St. Charles

Friday, September 26, 2014

Old Friends & Old Memories......

September 17, 2014 This is another day without Otis, he's at the kennel!?! Tonight we are meeting up with Mike & Susan Freund. Both Mike & Lennie were Mac Tools Distributors, then District Managers, & they both made the switch(at different times) to Matco Tools, Lennie as a District Manager, then retiring as a Distributor, & Mike, is still a Distributor for Matco Tools in Libertyville, Illinois.Since we are not meeting up with Mike & Susan till about 6:00pm we have time to spare. We are going to visit Fort Sheridan where Lennie was stationed after his return from Vietnam. Course that's been 47 years, & Fort Sheridan is no longer a base, we just want to see what it looks like & what they've done to it!
Ft Sheridan main gate

It was nice just to be able to walk all over the grounds....


Lennie said some of it was still familiar to him, but mostly....not!

Officer housing now condos!




Now that looks familiar!


Lake Michigan, Base beach


Base Cemetery

Beyond this arch was WAC housing


This exhibit was not at Ft Sheridan, back in the day.....

but it was pretty interesting!




Here's looking at you!

To kill some more time we drove through the town of Park City where Lennie lived off base. A lot had changed since his military days, he did say the apartment buildings still looked the same. (We didn't take a picture!)
It's about time to catch up with Mike & Susan. Now....not only is Mike a Tool Man, he's also an old car buff. He has 5 old cars in his collection, Susan says he's done collecting!?! When Lennie called Mike to make plans, Mike chose this date, the 17th because there was a car show in Libertyville that night! We were pleasantly surprised when we pulled up & Mike's 31 Model A was out front of his house!
SWEEEEET!!!!!
Then.......we got to ride to the car show in the Model A, as Mike was an entry in the car show!!!!
There was no judging, just walking around & enjoying!

Mike's 31 Model A(he also has a 28 with a rumble seat!)



I favor the Chevy Nomad, didn't see one soooooo I'll take this T-bird!

Nice ride

Dinner after the car show 

And then.....that LOOOOONG ride back to the Country!!!!!