It has been a while since I wrote on the blog and lots of news to share. I just returned from a week with my daughter and her family. My grandchildren always make me laugh. Theo and I took a 4 mile nature walk with his I-Spy books and spotted lots of things. He is very specific. One picture in the book showed a sign post for a speed limit. In the book it showed just the number in a circle. The sign had the same number in a circle but underneath it it said Speed Limit. To him that was not a match and he could not check it off. Same with some others. Since we were trying to fill in all the checks so he could send off for his certificate form I-Spy we were unsuccessful. He did find lots of things and pointed out to me if I missed something what he saw. He was very helpful. In the helpful vein, he was speaking about a test he needed to take and then I told him about a memory test I need to take at the doctor’s when I go for my annual check up. You may have taken this test too where they tell you or show you 5 words and then later you need to repeat them back. He did keep testing me during the week and I am happy to report Theo found me memory fit!

One of the most surprising and happy things that happened was that the day I arrived Theo’s grade was performing a play. I never thought I would see my grandson live in a play. Laura has sent me links to see him in school plays, but it is different sitting in the audience and making eye contact with him. What a wonderful surprise and he was a wonderful break dancing android. He really is a good dancer!

Penny was mostly involved in coloring and stickers and my tablet is covered with stickers as were my clothes. She did seem to like putting them on my back and Laura was picking them off of me.

We all built a lot of Lego sets. Many, many, many, many (do you understand how many?) Lego buildings, spaceships, towns and undefined projects. Good thing I like Lego! We also visited a Lego store for shopping. Theo did review every item for sale prior to picking his set. One of the nicer things about age 6 is reading. I gave him a dollar (pound) limit and he would look at things and say they were out of his price range and let it at that. He really wanted a set that was a bit over his price limit and he was going to have his father, without asking his father, to pay the difference. I was happy to get it for him. By time we left the store we had 3 sets and a “free” gift. When we got home he told his mother, Look grandma did not have to pay for this one. Really? Theo and I like to dine out for lunch and he will give me a review of what we ate. I enjoy hearing his opinions.

I am finally recovered from the jet lag and starting to clean the house after being away for more than a week and organize for our trip starting on Monday. The day after I landed, while I was very sleep deprived, we drove out RV 2 1/2 hours to around Elkhart, IN to have solar panels put on the roof and increase our battery capacity. We also increased our invertor size, I am still chasing that morning cup of coffee, I am assured this larger invertor will make that possible. We should also be able to run the microwave and air fryer if we do not have electric at our campsite.

As someone told me, this makes us apocalypse ready. I am not sure if that is true since every apocalypse story I have seen blocks out the sun, a necessary component of solar power. We will be able to give the system a good test this coming trip. As I said before, Mississippi does not have a lot of campgrounds where we are going, we may stay in forests or parking lots during this stay and for the 28 days we will be gone, we have reservations for 16 nights. The rest of the time we will be winging it. Sort of exciting and unnerving at the same time. If you want to know where we end up and what we see you will need to follow along. I don’t expect to have internet every day so you may receive duplicate posts in one day.

We planned our second trip for the month of July/August to go to Colorado. we will be gone for 31 days and a good number of them have no electric. We are going to Rocky Mountain National Park and Theo asked me if I could take a picture for him at the top of the Mountain – I said no with no hesitation. I said I would gladly take it at the bottom. He was not impressed.

Tomorrow we drive the 2 1/2 hours each way to pick up the RV. Then the weekend is spent packing and cleaning it. Monday night we are staying in the parking lot of Boomland a Missouri firework shop. Hope we don’t detonate!