I wondered as we were driving home what my yard and plants would look like after being left on their own for 7 weeks with the hot, hot temperatures Arkansas was experiencing while we were gone enjoying ourselves in the mountains and the cool 70 degree temperatures that we experienced almost the entire time we were gone.
I should have taken a before an after picture of my big blue hydrangea bush that I have had for almost 20 years. I really didn’t know if it would revive itself – but it is!! When we got home the entire bush was totally limp – the leaves all facing downward and a very light color – this is after I left the hose running on it twice at about 30 minutes each to drench the area with water. It will survive 
Back in early April after a 3 week delay I had 10 tiny scarlet maple trees that I planted. They should have went in the ground in March but they lost my order. I went ahead and planted them and wondered if they would still be alive – I really didn’t think any of them would be alive – surprisingly 3 of the 10 are alive. This one is in the sun, the other two are part shade. Didn’t grow! but still alive.
The monkey grass and the hostas are still alive but I cut the two cinnamon ferns down to nothing and I’m watering – maybe they will come back, if not this fall maybe I will be surprised in the spring. I hope so they were both about 3 feet tall and about 2 feet wide at least.
Well we can all see how this garden did! I wonder if anything will come back. I do not intend to start pulling anything up and replanting this fall – I really want to see if the plants just went dormant and will come back in the spring. I will decide then what to do about it.
The dogwood tree – lower leaves are all dried up but the upper leaves are fine. We watered this area two times since we got home 48 hours ago. As you can see what passes for a grassy lawn is dried up brown – it is more weeds than grass – we would have to sod the whole place to have decent grass with as rocky as our soil is.
This tree looks dead – that is ok, I didn’t want it anyway – there is a redbud growing someplace in that area and I want that one instead.
This garden – well what can I say – as soon as I can I will get started deadheading these Black Eyed Susan’s and scattered the heads where they can seed and make me some new plants! I will give this area some water and see what happens. The tall lilies flowered before we left so they are doing their normal thing and starting to dry up.
We have been home 48 hours and I feel like I will never get caught up. We ran into the mailman when we were grocery shopping after we got home and he said he would bring the box of mail collected up while we were gone to save a trip to the post office – nice man! But it took me almost 2 hours to go through all the mail today – of course after I organized things into stacks the largest was the mail order catalogs that I normally throw away anyhow! the next size was the credit card offers that need to be shredded. All but one of our bills can be done on line so not much in that stack! (and I actually called and got the total for that bill over the phone so didn’t need these bills – they will get shredded too)
I have all of my quilting things put back where they belong and did a little stitching on the last appliqué block that I never finished on the road. I also got the quilt out that I had brought along to quilt and never did – I worked on it yesterday afternoon while hibernating in front of the tv while it was 96 outside.
I need to press and square up the July stars that I hand pieced on the road for the Star Crazy BOM – and I printed out the instructions for the August BOM pieces.
All in all I have gotten some done since we got home but I think I will be watering plants all week – good news is that by Wednesday it should be back in the 80’s and get this – maybe high 50’s at night! sounds like maybe the heat wave broke just as we were getting home – hope so!!
EDITED: Several have asked what kind of pen do I use to mark the blue lines – this one is Mark-B-Gone, I have used other brands and find that in my opinion all blue wash out pens work about the same, I have used several kinds. I never have a problem with wash out – use plenty of water and wash two times if needed – put no heat near it until the blue is washed out.
It has been awhile since Mike worked up the map of our trip but last night he did so here it is:
All of the “pins” indicate places that we camped at. We left home on July 2nd and got I back yesterday August 21. I’m not sure how many miles we put on the camper and then on the car also. We really noticed much better gas and diesel mileage in the north and the west then we get here at home which was strange. Our Honda car at home normally gets about 22 miles to the gallon – it is six years old and over 125,000 on it. I assumed the mileage was not as good as it used to be because it was getting old – in the north and west however it was ranging between 28 and 31 miles per gallon. The motor home which is diesel engine in averaged between 12 and 18 I believe that is towing the Honda.
First of all before I forget – Jackie at Canton Village is having a give away – visit her blog to see details. A GO AccuCutter what a prize – y’all better not enter I want to win this one
We got home about 4 this afternoon an hour earlier than we thought we would. Normally we stop every couple hours to walk around – not today – the heat!!! When we hit Conway Arkansas about 45 minutes from home it said it was 106!! Talk about not being used to the heat. The A/C couldn’t keep up it was 85 in the motorhome. We did get out a couple times before it got to the 100 mark and then early afternoon stopped at a Wal-Mart and walked around the inside of the building a couple times but that was it.
When we got home driving up the ridge and into the driveway it said 101 – it had cooled off In the house it was 88. We brought in a few things, got the A/C going, the ice maker going and went in to town to eat and go get grocery’s. Figured that the time away would help to cool the house down a little bit – it did but it is down to 80 now and with all the ceiling fans turned on it is starting to feel better.
Got some of the most needed things out of the camper tonight and the rest will wait until morning when it should be a little cooler – maybe 80?
The yard looked much nicer than we expected. We must have gotten some of the rain showers that CJ missed out on only 15 miles from me. We are just far enough from there that sometimes the rain gets us and not them and vice versa. The trees don’t look too bad although we do have some turning yellow – my two big Cinnamon Ferns look horrible – I will water those and see if they come back – they better I have had them for about 4 years now and they were really rooted well – hopefully they just need some tender loving care.
Well I am tired, exhausted – it is time to chill, get a nice shower, put the p.j.’s on and relax with a book. I’ll get stuff done tomorrow and start looking over quilting projects and see what to start on!
We left Wisconsin by 8:30 this morning having said our goodbyes last night we hit the road early. Still we were driving until a little after 5PM. The drive from north to south in Illinois is all pretty much the same – boring- no offense to anyone from Illinois – the interstate driving in most any state is boring – but more convenient and faster than the highways. We are ready to get home after being gone so long ( I am anyway)
Tonight we are still about 8 hours from home and we are camped outside of the town of Benton, IL.
Along the way today the interesting sights we saw:
Windmills and fields – photo is fuzzy and taken while we were driving – you are seeing what I was seeing
Truck traffic:
Pretty clouds:
Fields and rivers:
Road construction – again photo taken through car window (included splattered bugs):
We are now into southern Illinois – the scenery is changing and we are now seeing more trees and less cornfields:
Oh no – now we are seeing dried up trees and it is up to 95 degrees!!
And more dried trees at the rest area – I am beginning to dread seeing my trees at home:
It is 8:30 PM and it is 84 degrees outside – we have not seen it this hot in weeks. I saw on the weather that it is to be around 100 tomorrow (Saturday) and heat index of 115!!!! OMG it is going to take awhile to get used to this.
Have no idea if I will blog Saturday night after we get home – I have a feeling I will be too tired. I will blog on Sunday though for sure – in between doing laundry and grocery shopping (which will have to be either early if I am up early or in the evening – I don’t think I will be outside much in the afternoon!) I will need to get back to the quilting frame as well – I can’t air out my house it will be too hot – will have to make due with some cleaning with Lysol to get rid of the musty smell that for sure will welcome me when I open the door!! Opening door and windows will have to wait for cooler weather.
Sorry for no interesting photos today – you see what I saw LOL Vacation is pretty much over 
We were on our way by 8:30 to go to the Apple Orchard which already had two different kinds of apples ready for picking. Jessica wanted to can applesauce. A really nice farm was to be seen. When you first walk into the barn to get the information – find out where to go ect. there was a nice wooden troll – this is a Norwegian family that runs this orchard, Ciera got a kick out of the troll and had to poise with it :
We were pointed in the right direction and told how to pick apples and the children told nicely to not climb the trees. Off we went down the gravel way to the correct area of the orchard. Utah started to lead the way taking charge:
We passed many trees and many varieties:
Finally we got to the correct row:
I had not heard of this variety – but they make good applesauce:
The trees were covered in apples:
Getting busy:
I think the discussion was can more apples be fit in the bag – we were told we could fill it as full as we possible could – this bag holds a 1/2 peck.
All of a sudden Mike found out that his job here was not to just take photos it was to carry the heavy bag back to the car! (I took the photos though that are on this post – I haven’t seen his photos yet)
Jessica and Ciera – Ciera is tired – and hot – she asked why didn’t we come even earlier and was told because the farm was still asleep then!
Walking back to the front of the farm – other people were there too – a popular farm.
Looking at the flowers:
More flowers:
Signs with the rules of the farm:
How full to fill the bags:
Cute signs:
Ready to hit the road and go home to make applesauce – and one pie!
Well our time here in Wisconsin has come to a close. We are back to the campground tonight getting things ready to leave in the morning. We decided to do the drive in two days as it will be too hot to do anything but sit in the camper anyhow. We will be home on Saturday late in the day.
Don’t know if we will have internet tomorrow night but most likely as we will pull off at a KOA near the interstate in Southern Illinois. Our trip is coming to a close. Most likely there will be nothing much to take photos of tomorrow on the drive we will be on the interstate and that is always boring – I will check my mail though tomorrow.
Glad you all came along for the trip – I had fun doing the blog posts and posting photos.
Wednesday was a full day of one thing to do after another. It was time to hit the museums of Madison which are found all one after another sometimes next door to each other and some down a block or two – all are in the Capital Square area which is beautiful and one street full of restaurants.
We started the museums off at the History Museum. The kids enjoy museums but we go through them much faster than if it is just Mike and I. We still saw a lot though. First up was arrowheads and flints:
Indian Bead Work:
Wow what a dress – these are silver bells all over it. I would think it a little heavy also – a celebration dress of course most likely only worn once in awhile.
One antique quilt:
This sign goes with the quilt almost 150 years old.
A lovely painted bowl – I thought I had the writing on the card good enough but I see I don’t. I believe it was made by a Polish person. I know I have seen painting on wood like this that from Russia and that is very close to Poland so maybe the art is the same type.
Another Polish art work – this is called Polish Wycinanki – I actually have a quilt pattern of this some where in a magazine that I kept to do some time down the road. I believe the quilt pattern is either needle turn appliqué or reverse appliqué.
Can’t see a Wisconsin Museum without a dairy cow!
An antique sewing machine – couldn’t see a name on it other than Singer – I have no idea how old it is.
At the Children’s Museum – a roof top garden with a sand box. Our 10 year old Utah is a beginning teacher at the karate studio (he does what is referred to as “shadow teaching” to mostly younger kids) that he goes to and he got right in there with the younger kids and started to make sand snow balls and was handing them out to all the kids. Such patience – one of the kids would accidently break one and he would get another one ready to hand out.
Kids doing one of the things they do best – being silly:
A treat on the way home:
Then it was time to cool off in the pool at the campground:
Tomorrow morning going to an apple orchard is the plan – apples are ready for picking – it is going to be hot tomorrow (86) so good thing it is open in the morning – no sleeping in on our last day!
Several have asked why no photos inside of the store – I was so eager to get inside I didn’t think to bring my camera with me If you go to this link and click on the photo you can take a virtual tour through the store: http://millhousequilts.com/our-history.php
Also people thought I was too conservative in my shopping!! LOL I really and truly do not need a lot of supplies right now. I have plenty of fabric at home and I try not to buy too many patterns. I have found in the past that if I buy, buy, buy when at quilt shops chances are that I eventually change my likes and dislikes and I don’t want more patterns sitting around not being used, or fabric that I am thinking “why did I buy that” instead when I have a new project going and if I don’t have the fabric then I buy because I know what I want. This way I keep my stash under control and do not have patterns that I will never use. The first time I went to the Paducah quilt show I came home with so much stuff and I hate to say it but I have not used some of it still and it has been 4 or 5 years!!
Most likely because I do not machine quilt and sometimes handpiece and do a lot of hand applique I do not make as many quilts as some of you and don’t need as large of a stash.
Today was a busy day – the History Museum, lunch, Veterans Museum, and then the Children’s Museum – back to the campground so the kids could use the pool and then back to the house. I will get photos out from some of the places later.
First of all before I forget if you go to Mike’s post he posted some of our photos from our walk – UP – Independence Rock last month – you can see me close to the top on his photo there – it was quite a climb – you have to kind of lean forward when you are walking up a rock and keep zig zagging up so it isn’t quite as steep that way.
http://hawcreekoutdoors.com/blog/independence-rock/ (Mike’s post)
It makes me look kind of small on that big rock!
One of the first things I do when I come to this area in a free moment is run over to Millhouse Quilts to look around. It is really my favorite quilt shop seeing as I have no local quilt shop at home. Yesterday my daughter asked if there was anything we wanted to see or do while we were here – and then she added “besides going to the quilt shop” knows me well I think! LOL I thought maybe I better get that done first today and get it done!
And I really and truly did not buy much – I tried to stay true to my pledge to not buy fabric other than backing and backgrounds. I think this package of pastel fat quarters qualify as background don’t you and only one pattern – that is not so bad, a drawing pad of graph paper seeing as I do not use a computer program, and a package of neutral charms! I was good.
Then after I got back to the camper to pick up Mike we headed over to the house. One of the dogs had a vet appointment for shots – Jessica took care of that and Mike and I had grandparent duty and took the kids over to the new neighborhood park that is not quite finished – but the basketball hoops were up so we brought the ball with us and had a game of shooting hoops. I had not shot hoops in a long time but I am pleased to say I dropped it in about 10 or 12 times – it helps that I am not short (5’8”) and have long arms. I do not jump well anymore and I do not run well due to my muscle/joint problems so we didn’t actually play a real game – but what Utah calls “horse” – I’m clueless about it but he kept score and when just he and I were playing I won one game and he won the other. Then Mike joined us and he is taller and long arms too and he was dropping them in. Ciera got tired of her bike and joined in also and managed to score! It was girls against guys and I must say they wiped us out even though we tried to change the score numerous times by insisting they weren’t keeping score right – they wouldn’t believe us – they wouldn’t give it to us
Mr. Cool Dude Utah:
Getting ready to shoot:
Ciera rode her bike over and for awhile was more interested in running Utah over than playing the game:
The “princess” and her bike:
Then it was time to run out to the timeshare farm to pick up this weeks supply of vegetables. Jessica is good at finding things like that so the family eats healthy. Here is Utah in the car.
Ciera cuddling up with her Dad – Shane this evening watching tv.
Tomorrow we will be visiting the new children’s museum in Madison – should be a fun day – sounds like a lot of activities there – the cameras will be busy – I have my camera battery charging already! I think Thursday we are picking apples at a farm – I think I will pick some to bring home with me too – they should keep well as we will only be two or three days drive from home when we leave here – I will be making some applesauce then I think.
We left our campground around 9 this morning, we were in no rush, we only had a couple hours drive to go but we had several stops we wanted to make along the way. About half way from where we were camped at and our daughters house is a fairly large outlet mall and I actually wanted to stop and see if there were any good sales as I have found some before – I was looking for a lightweight long sleeve robe to keep in the camper – one that wouldn’t take up much room. I have been chilly often in the morning and have resorted to wearing a sweatshirt jacket at times I found one and another pair of long pajama pants that I probably won’t need again after this week until fall! At the way the weather is going at home the A/C will be on until well into October
The outlet mall:
The other stop we wanted to make was at a winery. We had taken a tour through Wollersheim Winery two years ago and had a wine tasting and we had found one we loved but cannot find in Arkansas and you can’t order it from out of state so we thought seeing as it was on the way we would stop and buy some to take home with us. We don’t really drink all that much! But it is nice to have a wine that you like. Here are some photos of the winery – they have great landscaping.
And no I did not go up these steps! I have had enough of that seeing as my daughter lives in a two story house I will be getting enough steps in – there is a steep side walk though that we had to go up instead.
Pretty flowers – it is warmer here than usual also for the summer, but they have had a bit of rain.
A pretty arbor:
I love the twisted shape of the tree – the branches come over the sidewalk just right:
More pretty flowers:
Some of the mature vines:
And more vines:
We got to the campground we are staying at around 1 and Jessica and the kids got there a short time later – the kids wanted to play in the campground playground which they remembered from the last time we were there. (we are lucky in that the campground is on the edge of town and on the same side they are on – about a 5 minute drive)
Our grandson Utah playing horseshoes and goofing off:
Our granddaughter Ciera and our daughter Jessica in the pink shirt – our campsite is there over to the right across from the playground – nothing special about the campsite – but nice that the campground owner recognized me as I walked in the door – of course it was in the computer that we were recurring customers – but good relations to be so friendly – said she couldn’t believe it had been two years since we were there – I flew in last fall as Mike couldn’t make it as he was working then so I hadn’t been camping.
Getting his exercise – kids will be kids – instead of sliding down he was running up and balancing himself on the edges – he is a karate kid and has his moves down really good.
Looking thoughtful about something – very windy day and the hair wouldn’t stay still:
The dogs – Max is the larger and about 5 years old, Marley is the smaller one and is 4 months old – she will be a big dog too.
Tomorrow morning I will be breaking my promise not to buy fabric this year (I said I would only get backings and background – maybe that is what I will get I don’t know?) – I am going to my favorite quilting store – Millhouse Quilts first thing in the morning. The quilt store is in the next town over, only about 10 miles away. I love that place, such a big old building. Jessica and the kids do not get off to as early of a start as we do in the mornings so I will be going over there in the morning and then over to Jessica’s later in the morning.
On the 14th we traveled across South Dakota stopping in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for the night. No place special – a KOA by the interstate. Photos from going across South Dakota. First this kind of land – mile after mile!
Forgive the fuzziness – taken from the car-sunflower fields:
Hayfields:
Today the 15th was spent going across the lower portion of Minnesota. Farmland and barns and silo’s:
Today (the 15th) going across the Mississippi River into Wisconsin:
A view of the Mississippi River from the top of the bridge:
On the other side of the bridge is Western Wisconsin:
Some “wetlands” that we drove through on our way to our campsite tonight which is another KOA campground. This one is about 4 miles from the interstate so we don’t hear it tonight!
Tomorrow the 16th we arrive at our daughter’s house. They live outside of Madison on the eastside, out of the city and in a small community. I will be on and off the computer especially first thing in the morning and at night so I will still continue to post now and then. I have a few more videos I want to look at and upload and maybe I will find a few other things to post photos of – like grandchildren
