6-23-18 hanging out with Tim

Tim treated us this morning by cooking breakfast for us.  He's embracing being a Southerner now and makes a great biscuit!

After some hymning and  hawing about what to do the rest of the day, Ken suggested Tim and I go out looking for a new laptop for me.  Since I wasn't going to get to go into the mountains, I was happy to take this suggestion.  So we went to Sam's.  Tim explained the different computers to me and I settled on an HP.  It wasn't the most expensive one, but not a cheap one like Ken's.  He's always complaining about how poorly his works.  So for $799, hopefully this one will do what I want it to do.
After all that hard work, we went to Tropical Smoothie Cafe for smoothies.  I was very impressed!  Possibly the best smoothie I've ever bought!  Not too sweet, but lots of flavor.

Back at the house, Tim set up the new laptop for me.  Sure glad I got it then!  I would have been lost at all the stuff it wanted you to do at first.  Tim being an IT guy for the federal courts, quickly got through all of that and even loaded a professional security program on it, Office, a video player, and I have no idea what all else! 

For dinner, we took him to Lakeside Grill.  One of my favorite places there!

not much of a sunset again.

But it was really pleasant dining with the windows open.

back at Tim's, I marveled at their plants---like this one.

Not the typical vacation day, but a very productive one!

6-22-18 to Knoxville

Now that the stress of buying the house was done, it was time to hit the road towards St. Louis.  By way of Knoxville.  And by way of Lane's Farm for breakfast!
Love all the crepe myrtles blooming all over the place---like here at the entrance to Lane's restaurant and gift shop.

about a forth of the store.

some of the peaches that I bought.

my senior $2.49 breakfast!

When we were done with breakfast, we thought we knew of a way to get around Atlanta by way of back routes.  Turned out to be a pretty drive, but we didn't miss Atlanta!  We did see signs like this, though.  I guess if we had taken a different road we might have avoided Atlanta.

Another thing that reminds me of Oregon---log trucks.  We see quite a few of them in middle Georgia.

Also love all the mimosa trees that are in bloom.  I think their flowering season is just about over.

Lots of farmlands, too.  What's not to love about them?!

Even a Christmas tree farm!!!!  Maybe we are in Oregon?!

Nope, now we're in Forsyth, Ga.

Apparently it's another historic old town.   The Forsyth Commercial Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a tourist attraction. It includes the Monroe County Courthouse and Courthouse Square as well as the surrounding area, including several examples of 19th-century architecture. Forsyth is also home to the Confederate Cemetery, Tift College and Rum Creek Wildlife Management Area

From there we got back onto I-75.  Our hour or so detour was done.

Wasn't too long 'til we could see Atlanta looming in the distance.

Even as much traffic as there was, we went straight through the city.  Turned out to be pretty fast!

One of the decorated areas along 75 in Atlanta.

NW of Atlanta.  This is the kind of traffic we put up with on the NE side for the last 2 years.  I don't miss the traffic.

It wasn't until after we got out of Atlanta and closer to Chattanooga that we hit major slow downs.  But we eventually made it to Knoxville.  Faith wasn't there this weekend, but we decided to spend the weekend visiting Tim anyway.  Even went for pizza that night.  I liked it.  I think Tim liked it.  But Ken said he wouldn't go back because they didn't have straws.

Lots of cloud cover, but we got a tiny bit of a sunset.

We had thought of going straight to St. Louis since we had to be back in Perry on the 1st, but I'm glad we stopped in Knoxville.  Hopefully Tim is, too.

6-21-18  We own another house!!!!

We had planned to be in St. Louis right now.  Time to hit the Dr.s again.  But when Ken contacted the bank to see if they needed anything else before our closing on the 30th, they informed us that we were closing on the 14th!  Wait.  What????  Really!!!!  So after some kibitzing back and forth with the bank, the lawyer, and the seller, we came to an agreement to close on the 21st and rent the house out to the seller until July 2nd.  Turned out our loan rates were only good until the 21st.  With rates now at 4.625 we didn't want to have to pay a higher rate just to move the closing date to the 30th.

So, today was our closing day on our house in Perry.  We had started this whole procedure by checking out home rentals for a couple monthsm but with the good ones getting rented before we could even look at them, we decided to just buy one.  It's our first real adventure in buying a house, at least the conventional way with a loan and all.  Since it was a for sale by owner house, we didn't have the help of an agent.  So we hired a lawyer to draw up the offer and do the closing and trusted the seller (who was also a partner in the building company who built the house).  He lived in the house for 6 months; bought it when it was almost finished and put his special touches in it---upgraded carpet, lights, cabinets, windows, insulation, ... .  So we basically got a new house-with a lot of upgrades.

Time to celebrate!  Decided to have dinner at the Italian restaurant in Perry, Rusty's.

And who better to celebrate with then family!?

Still have a trip to St. Louis planned---but that'll start tomorrow.

6-19-18  HOT, HOT, HOT

Only June and it is already very hot!  Heat indexes over 100 several days in a row now.  But the evenings don't feel too bad.  Plus the kids' pool makes it even better!

Today we went to one of our favorite places for an early dinner---Golden Corral.  It's quite a deal for seniors at $7.99 for all you can eat including a drink.  Plus, the Golden Corral in Warner Robins is probably my favorite one of all of the ones I've been to.  I love that they have craisins and  blue cheese crumbles for my salad---one of the few that does.  Plus everyone is so friendly.  I attribute that to Warner Robins being a military town---Go Air Force!!!!  And it's so nice seeing parents controlling their kids in public areas!

 I think this is the first time our new car has read 100 degrees! 

Sure miss the ocean like we had on those hot days down in south Florida!  But at least Angie and Josh have a nice pool.  Now to figure out what else to do in small town Georgia.

6-16-18 over to Macon again

Our nearest "big" city is Macon.  With a population of about 154,000, it's only about half the size of St. Louis.  It doesn't sprawl out like St. Louis county, either.  St. Louis county has over 1,000,000 people.  Perry only has about 16.000 people in it.  I really do feel like we're in the country now!  So when we want to see the big city, we go to Macon.

The ride to Macon is about 30 minutes, about the time it takes to drive from our suburb city of Florissant (56,000 people) to downtown St. Louis.  But we sure don't have views like this on our drive in St. Louis!  Most of the way to Macon is along farmlands.  But today the clouds were the attraction.

 Downtown Macon is much quieter than St. Louis, too. 

 It's more of an artsie town.

 We headed to Ocmulgee Brewery for lunch again.

 It was as good as the last time.

Interesting set up with all the picnic tables inside.

 heading back out.

 love the tree lined streets of Macon.

 Lots of history here.  Glad to see they aren't defacing and tearing down the statues and the history of Macon like what's happening in so many other cities now.

 While we were in town, we hit up an estate sale.  Interesting ride through the neighborhoods, but the sale was pretty much a dud.

 One final stop---at Bass Pro shop for some father's day shopping.

 Then back on the highway to head home to Perry.

Certainly is a lot different than where we lived the last 2 years!!!!!  Even 40 miles north of the city of Atlanta we were in horrific traffic.  I do miss the preserve by our apartment and the shops I could walk to---as well as the easy access to the mountains and lake Lanier, but I don't miss the constant traffic.

6-12-18 update on Layla

She's about 6 1/2 months old now!  It's been so fun watching her change almost daily!  I don't remember our kids changing so fast!  I don't remember much about those days!!  It's been fun getting to enjoy these times with Layla.
She so alert and inquisitive now.  Even to the point where she's purposely putting her feet on things.

 and she so stinking cute!

 Seems like every couple of days she's trying out new sounds and ways to use her mouth.  Today she learned she can blow bubbles with her drool.

 Of course she sports her Cardinal onsies so well!

 and she still does what babies do---at least this time it wasn't all over me!

 She still doesn't really like car rides.  But she is beginning to entertain herself on rides with her toys.

 She also tried bottled baby food for the first time.  Since she loves the song, "I like to eat, eat, eat, apples and bananas", those were her first trials.  She hasn't quite got the hang of it!  But she didn't seem to hate it.

So now she has more ways to make messes.  But it's so fun watching her learn.

6-11-18  Ken to an orthopedic Dr.

I hate to say it, but Ken's ankle finally gave out.  It had been popping terribly for a couple years now and causing him to not walk as much.  While the kids and were gone to Edisto a few days ago, he was doing some yard work and it swelled up and curved under.  So on Monday he made an appointment with an orthopedic Dr. and a week later he saw him.  Not good news.  The Dr. thinks it's charcot's foot caused by diabetes and said he needs to see a Dr. that specializes in the foot and ankle.  So for now, he's in a boot and hobbling even more.

Not the way we planned to start our new life in Perry, Ga.!