Family time before heading west

This summer has been so much fun. Visiting states we've not been to before, meeting up with friends and traveling together through the NE states. Memories abound with those travels but it was time to move on and spend some time with family before we begin our trek west. We started with our daughter, Sommer and grandkids in Indiana....this was a logical move since we were coming right by their home after we left Niagara Falls and spent a night in OH at a Cabela's. We had a wonderful time catching up and relaxing at their home. I was able to bring a few beers to Todd from the NE that he enjoyed. Unfortunately some of the grandkids weren't there. Brooklyne lives with her Dad in Georgia and about to start school. Jasmyne lives in MI and is working and attending nursing school and Mason works and lives in OH. So we made the best of our time with who was there. Not a lot to talk about....just enjoying the family. Todd and I put up a new garage door opener. They had one with a chain drive so we changed it out to a belt drive. We grilled out a couple of dinners and had a couple of campfires in their fire pit.

We did have one more issue with our truck while there. The vacuum pump started leaking oil so I took it in for an oil change and they were able to diagnose the problem and fix it. Of course it was NOT under warranty and the truck extended warranty wouldn't cover it either. Nothing like shelling out $400 when a warranty should have covered. All in all a great time.

Taken on a walk along the Mishawaka River walk and St. Joseph River

Then it was off to Bloomington/Normal where my Dad and brother live. Dad's 92 now and we may not have too many more years to enjoy his company. He tells us to go and enjoy our travels but I know he would like to see us more often. We try to spend as much time with him as we can while we're there. He likes us to bring dinners in to share with him. His favorites are Steak N Shake, Thai food and BBQ. We did all of them while we were there.

Dad and his two boys

After a week of visits we moved northward to see our daughter, Heather and grandson in the Chicago area. Her husband, Paul and I share a love of different beers and I had picked some interesting ones up for him in the NE like I did for Todd. I needed to drop those off too.

Of course our grandson Aiden being the youngest needs his Me Maw and Grandpa to play with him ALOT. So we did as much as we could handle. He has some Splat balls and loves to throw them and watch them SPLAT on the ground. They only squish out and then reshape after hitting the ground. He's also very big into trains and has several small sets with wooden tracks that are set up in their foyer. Aiden and I would run the trains around the track over and over again. Changing engines and box cars. Pretending to load and unload the cars and fuel up the engines. On Saturday night while there Heather and Paul went to a party with friends so we got to watch Aiden. Fantastic opportunity to bond with the little guy. As I said he's the youngest so he wants us around more. Not that the older grandkids don't....it's just that they had their time with us and they like to do more things on their own with friends or they've grown up enough to be working or going to school in another state.

Splatballs

Trains 

Aiden's taking swimming lessons so we went to a lesson to see him swim.....well float and put his face in the water. He's getting better every lesson. The teacher is very patient and gives a lot of good praise.

He needs a little encouragement from Dad

Now we're having fun

Our last day with them Paul smoked some baby back ribs. He's become very good at this smoking meat thing and I took several photos of the process to document and for my future use. I would love to get a small smoker and do some different meats while in AZ this winter.

Ribs ready for seasoning

Yellow mustard to aid in holding the seasoning on the meat

Famous Dave's Rib Rub....not the Famous Dave that I know

Ready for the smoker

In they go for 3 hours

Ready for more seasoning and 2 hours in the oven wrapped in aluminum foil

Butter and more seasoning before getting wrapped up

Delicious

Again we didn't do a lot of special things, we just wanted to spend time with them and drink some beer with Paul. :-)

Photo from previous visit

I seem to take lots of photos of Aiden but not one of Heather and Paul so a photo from a prior time at their favorite restaurant....Coopers Hawk.

After our long weekend with them, we packed up the rig and began our western movement. First stop Iowa then on to Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

I'm gradually getting you caught up on our travels as we move quickly across the country. Thanks for following along.