Friday, June 23

This is the face of the day!!!
We woke up in Sallisaw, Oklahoma at Walmart, ready to make a decision about which way to go...do we try to make it to Arizona or do we turn around and head home?????

We had decided to head home and try to salvage the rest of the summer instead of wasting another 3 weeks fixing Daisy.  Tried to start her up and head out but she wouldn't start at all!!!!

So began the vacations you see on movies.  We had to call another tow, just to get her to a garage, then we had to figure out how to transport everybody, then we had to figure out where to stay for the night.  Oh so many stories....let's just say some more time in Walmart, a tow truck ride for all of us, a bus ride across state lines, and an Enterprise rent a car later we were in a hotel room for a good night's sleep.  This adventure all started about 9:30 in the morning and it was about 7:00 before we started looking for dinner options close to the hotel.  The stories can't be told online, true justice can only be done in person, so next time you see one of us ask about Sallisaw, Oklahoma!!!

Thursday, June 22

Wednesday night our exciting adventure began to take a turn.  We had reservations for a State Park about half way across Arkansas because we felt like that was a comfortable distance.  We would have time to get to the campground, get set up, make some dinner and get a good night's rest before continuing on to our destination.
Not too long after our stop at the welcome center, we stopped for gas.  When Daisy cranked back up, she sounded a little different but nothing major just a little louder.  We thought it was just the gas we had put in her and she would be fine once we ran it through.  We continued on our journey because it was just noise and she seemed to be running fine.
As we got closer to our destination, we got a little bit more nervous.  We decided we would park and find a mechanic to check her out the next morning.  We put in the address we had for the campground and pulled in...only to finally figure out it was the wrong side of the lake for our reserved site, at about 9:30pm.
We figured out the address for the other side of the lake and took off.  Daisy was really not happy about all the starting and stopping that she was having to do.  As we pulled up the road, we thought we were supposed to take, there was a gate closed and locked.  Enter the first angel of our trip...a state ranger just happened to be locking the gate and asked us what we were doing there. We told her we were lost and just trying to find our campsite.  She graciously said, she would get us where we needed to be to follow her.  20 minutes later, we pulled into the campground on the right side of the lake. We found our campsite but someone was already parked there, so we backed into the closest site we could find and Daisy shut down.

We woke up Thursday morning knowing we were going to have to find a mechanic.  So we enjoyed the campground for a few minutes (aka-took a shower) and then started looking for a mechanic.

Enter Angel #2-this time her name was Kim and she was the campground host.  She was walking around checking campsites, so we stopped her and told her we got in late and someone was in our campsite so we pulled in.  After a series of questions and conversations, we realized we were in the wrong campground!!!!  The Welcome Center had called and made the reservations for us and I thought she made them for Lake Dardanelle but she had made them for Petite Jean State Park.

My big rock for the day...get out of the campsite and back on the road.

 Kim was not stressed, she said not to worry about it just take care of it on your way out.  No problem!!  We also told her we were having engine problems and she gave us the name of a mechanic who would come to us.  A quick phone call and 15 minutes later...enter Angel #3.  His name was Koty.  He quickly realized we needed a new distrubtor cap and off he went to find one.  He called back about 20 minutes later to tell us that there was one piece that would fit in the country and it just happened to be in Little Rock about an hour away.  It would be to us by about 6:30.  Problem #1-we had to be out of the campsite by 3:00, it was reserved for someone else and the campground was full for the night.  Luckily we had AAA, so another phone call and some explaining later, a tow truck was on the way to tow us to Walmart.  Problem #2-only one person could ride in the tow truck.  Reenter Angel #2-Kim, she just happened to be headed into town and was willing to give us a ride to Walmart.  So the kids and I loaded up and headed to Walmart.  Walter waited with the bus.
We spent some time wandering around Walmart and then Koyt showed up with the part.  He got it replaced and did some more tweaking and we were back on the road.  We still aren't 100% sure if she is going to make it but we are going to try just a few hours and see what happens.

Wednesday, June 21

We made it to Nashville, Tennessee last night.  We got to visit with Walter's nephew, Wayne, who is in school at Blackbird Academy.  He helped us get set up in our first Walmart parking lot.  It was actually really quiet.  We all had a good night's sleep and woke up ready to go.  We also learned a few things about camping at Walmart...one being, look around to notice the traffic pattern before you park...aka-don't park next to the parking lot exit, another being look at the lamp posts-park close enough for light but not so close that the light shines right into the window.  After a quick breakfast of cereal, we hit the road again.  A couple hours into our day, we made a stop at Natchez Trail State Park.  We thought it was a different park with cool trails...but we were confused.  It did have a nice picnic area and a neat visitors center.

We made it through the rest of Tennessee and into Arkansas.

By into Arkansas, I mean crossing the Mighty Mississippi.  For those of you who know Walter, know that I was driving.  He did a great job!!  We stopped at the Arkansas rest area.  The nice lady at the desk helped us get reservations for a State Park about half way through Arkansas...our first real camping experience on Daisy (the name of our bus...I'll give you a guided tour at some point).  No real excitement up until this point.  Everything was rolling right along!!

Tuesday, June 20

I promised you more information and here it is...
We have been working since November on an old school bus.  We found a 1984 International school bus that had started being converted to a skoolie (in case you don't know, that a school bus RV).  We (mostly Walter) have planned, replanned, schemed, reschemed, and built and rebuilt.  It has been a challenge and definitely a learning curve.  After Walter finished his build, I took over with the touches to make it livable...curtains, cushions, paint...you know all the girly stuff that I could do. Then we loaded her up and set off.  Our plan is to head to Arizona to see my brother and then head up to the Grand Canyon and then Yosemite and then see what happens from there.  We don't have to be home until July 16th.  So we are off on a grand adventure.

A New Adventure...Summer 2017

A teaser...

Post coming soon...just making sure this still works.

Big Things come in Small Packages

One of our goals for the new house, is to have a place that friends and family can come to for celebrations.  So as soon as we moved in we worked towards this goal, and we had something major to celebrate...a new family member.  Mommy's brother was having a baby and they were coming to town!  Not only were we all super excited that they were coming to town, we were excited to host a party at our new house.  While it was a lot of work to get the house ready (we had only been here a week!) it was tons of fun.
We strung up lights, put flowers on the tables, and candles everywhere...perfect for a new little girl.
We also built a fire pit to cook smores on (got to get your priorities right).
And set out to celebrate.
All the cousins came and had a blast running around being spies in the big yard.

 

So that was in June, fast forward 3 months and Mommy made a special trek out west to welcome the newest member.  Welcome to your crazy new family Baby Grace...

Your family is already head over heels in love with you.  Your biggest brother can't get enough of you

And you have a big cousin at this house who is beyond excited to meet you...finally a girl to play with.

***A couple of notes about this post...I started writing it over  month ago but just got it finished and apparently we were so excited during Grace's baby shower...nobody took pictures!!!  If anybody has any they would like to share with us that would be awesome.

Gettin' It Done

So when we moved into the new house, there were lots of things we wanted to change...some sooner than later.  Across the front of the house was a very manicured row of boxwood bushes.

 For those of you who know us, you will know that we are not a manicured anything kind of people.  These bushes also got in the way of the sidewalk as we made our way to the front door.  So in true Mommy fashion, I swiped Daddy's Sawsall and went to work. I was able to chop down all the bushes but as I started trying to move them realized they were all grown together so I couldn't pull one without all the others being attached...so what do you do in this situation...

 

well you hook up the lawnmower and pull off the whole batch at once.  It was awesome but also very funny to watch, as a whole trail of boxwood limbs slid across the driveway!  We got all of the limbs pulled out of the way and it has changed the way the front of the house looks.  As with everything else around here, the front of the house is still a work in progress.  So keep watching for the finished product.

As a side note, while I was chopping down the bushes, this little guy appeared.  He hopped out of the bushes and was bleeding, so what do the Fletcher's do???  We chase him down, put him in a box and try to help him.  Abram is an amazing frog catcher!  After cleaning his wound, we released him back to the wild.  I am not sure but I think I have seen this same guy around here several more times since then...or it could have just been another on of the hundreds of toads that seem to be living around here.  They especially like to come out at night when it is time to take Buttercup out.