June Adventures

Monday, June 13th (our anniversary, incidentally) we decided to drive over to LeClaire, IA which is the home of the History Channel's American Pickers, Mike and Frank. These 2 guys travel all over the USA looking for unusual and varied antiques that they resell. Their roots began in this small Iowa town along the Mississippi River in a garage - photos of the Picker's van and the Garage are below.

We did not get to meet either of the TV Picker's but Larry did sell six of his Big-Little Comic books to Mike's brother. Not a real big profit for Larry (he's had these comics for about 50 years now!!!) but at least they were interested enough to buy them from him.

The photo to the right shows Mike's brother purchasing the comic books from Larry.

Both Larry and I have been ill this week with summer colds and sore throats, probably due to rain, rain and more rain along with cooler temperatures. Since we spend most of our time in the southwest, we're just not used to rainy weather. Wish we could send some of this moisture to our friends in Texas, NM and AZ since these 3 states are in a severe drought. No moisture in west TX for over 1 year and wildfires continue to plague them.

The RV Resort continues to be full every weekend and also stays very busy during the week with seasonal families. We're still learning many phases of work that we do. One of the fun things Dee assists with every Friday night is Marguerita night Trivia. There are 6-10 teams that compete against each other and some of the answers are quite humerous. Everyone has a good time.

Summertime Has Arrived

We are still training on various jobs here at the Resort in Illinois. Neither one of us has reached that "Now I Know That Job" yet but we're working on it. Before the Memorial Day weekend, everyone was in crunch mode to get the Resort ready for the holiday weekend because every available camp site was full.

Amid all of the training and getting our feel of the area, a tornado watch loomed one weekend. No tornado, thank goodness, but sustained high winds caused a tree branch to fall on the front portion of our motor home causing damage enough for an adjuster to come out and assess the damage. During the storm, water was leaking into the unit above the dashboard area so we spent an hour or so catching water and emptying containers. There was also water damage around the kitchen area Fantastic Fan - water stains on an upholstered ceiling is not very attractive. Anyway, Larry was up on the roof several times getting a repair patch put on the 2" x 8" wide rip in the fiberglass. We've had one rain since and no water leaked in. As soon as we locate an rv center that can do fiberglass repairs, we'll make arrangements to take our unit in for repairs.

The Summer Playhouse just completed it's first production of the season "Sunset Boulevard". We both worked on the weekends so weren't able to go see the show. However we were able to go see the Beatles and Elvis impersonators that performed at a fundraiser for the Playhouse. The Elvis performer spray painted a 4'x6' white canvas of Elvis's image that was auctioned off for $1,400. He painted the mural while he was singing. Quite a remarkable likeness using a spray can of black paint. Impressed the heck out of everyone.

Weather has been very hot and of course humidity is high but we are slowly getting conditioned to it some. Only wish the tiny little bugs would go away as they especially like to be around your eyes and mouth. We've met a lot of nice people already and enjoy being around their families. Many of the rv'ers are seasonal so they are here every weekend during the summer months.

That's all for now. Will try and update quicker the next time.