There was a time when the memories of Mr. Virgo and me that pop up on FB would make me cry. They don’t any more. Nearly always, they make me smile. They bring a flood of warmth and a reminder of what an amazing life I lead…then and now. These are good things. This shows healing, grace, mercy, and personal growth.

The light was fading by the time we got home.

I love to drive…especially on a day when the sky is blue with big white, puffy clouds. The temps were cool, there was a breeze, and the trees were beginning to put on their royal robes to show off. We went to the dealership to pick up the Big Birdhouse, but there was something else on it that needed fixing so it’ll be a little while longer. 

To the right, through the trees, you see an appartment building with balconies. On the top floor, to the right of the balcony, is the window of the livingroom in our flat.

Have you seen that meme… “Don’t look back. You aren’t going in that direction.”? I have. And there’s a lot of truth in that. If we live in the past or hold grievances from long ago, that hasn’t healed anything that’s already happened. That day is gone. It can’t hurt you anymore. But the memories…ahhhh, that’s where we can get caught up in a lot of self-defeating angst. 

I slept like a stone, but still woke up with this headache. Occasional scratchy throat. I don’t feel sick as much as “puny”, as my grandma used to say. I tested yesterday afternoon and was negative. I’ll keep a close watch and continue to go easy. I’m just tired, I think. We run and run and run then I crash for a couple of days. It’s not the first time and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Set up for our picnic!

We got a call yesterday that we may have been exposed to covid over the weekend. Thursday night I started getting a headache a little bit of a scratchy throat. I haven’t tested yet. It could just be from the cold front coming through or camping by the river, but if the symptoms continue or worsen, I’ll definitely test. We have no plans to go anywhere in this next few days anyway. We cancelled our trip to the dealership yesterday to pick up the a-frame and we’ll do that as soon as we can.

Our View from the Camper Wednesday Evening

That trip was WAY too short. We were lucky we got reservations at all at Leith Run Campground. They sell out fast when the reservation window opens six months in advance of your stay. I love Site #11 because it’s right on the river and you are off in a corner. A few months ago, I looked on reservations.gov to see if there was on anything available there, and found three nights in our favored site so I grabbed it right away and so happy we got to go at all.

So, yesterday started out great. Mr. FixIt discovered his great grandparents are buried less than a half hour’s drive from the campground. We got up in time to grab breakfast from the Golden Arches and travel upriver on the West Virginia side. Find-a-Grave told us exactly where to go and gave us a picture of the headstone, to boot.

I’ve missed out on a ton of fun in my life. For years and years I tried to get my second husband to get a camper or an RV and it just wasn’t his thing. He was a city boy and a doctor…not a camper. For a very brief period, we had a VW Vanagon popup but it had a lot of mechanical problems. We were poor as church mice so we sold it to have a down payment on a house. 

I love the cheerful prints from Ree Drummond’s Prairie Woman collection. I tried to find her melamine plates that I love and they only had one at our Walmart. Maybe I’ll have better luck online. I did find the sheets and pillowcases, though!

Imagine a hotel room that’s less than 150 square feet. You don’t really have a closet…but there’s space under the bed and under the benches in the dinette. There are several small cabinets and cubbyholes where you can stash things. But you have to be smart and plan things out down to the last square inch. Now…put a couple of wheels on it, add hot and cold running water with a shower and toilet and the three water tanks that are required for proper use…hook it to your bumper…and you can go just about anywhere with everything you need.

Yesterday was a FixIt kinda day around Marshmallow Ranch. After a yummy country breakfast, Mr. FixIt had to replace the innards of the toilet in the main bathroom. We had a…ummmm…vibrant conversation in the plumbing aisle at Menard’s on Wednesday. I was firmly convinced that all the toilet needed was a flapper valve. He was equally firmly convinced it needed that filler thing-a-ma-jig. He was trying desperately to make me understand that the reason water was going in the bowl was because the filler valve wasn’t shutting off so the water was going down the overflow pipe.