Catching up on blogging.

Since my last post, we have...as usual...been very busy.

Our neighbor had an accident with a gun and shot himself in the head. He lived for 2 weeks and when he was just about to go to rehab to get physical and speech therapy, he developed a blood clot in his leg and passed away. He was only 49 and had two boys in college. His daughter is 28 with a son of her own. His wife heard the shot and ran out to the garage and found him. His two boys were there too. It happened just a week before they were to go back to school. He was a biker and the family asked that anyone who rides would ride in the funeral. There were 39 bikes and at least 100 cars. They ran out of food and the church that they had the lunch at couldn't accommodate all the people who came.

I will really miss seeing him ride his golf cart through the neighborhood or hearing him yell through the yard or across the building any time we met in public...HEY NEIGHBOR!! He always had a way of making everyone feel special. It's a small town and he will be missed by everyone.

We rode to a car show in Amboy. Rich's boss has a 56 Chevy and we met up with him there.

Over Labor Day, Rich wanted to take a look at an old PPlymouth down in Jerseyville, IL. The guy that owns it is parting it out or selling as a whole. Our plan was to take the truck and car trailer and he would decide after looking at it if he would buy the whole care for a parts car or just spend the day stripping it for what he wanted and just buy parts from it. We also thought that since it was the last long weekend of the summer, we would find something to do in the area and stay for the weekend. Jerseyville is fairly close to Springfield.

After talking to some friends, who suggested we put one bike in the back of the truck and they would follow on their bike and do some riding while we were there. Sounded good in theory!

After finally getting a hold of the guy with the car, he said the car was in the back of a corn field and we couldn't get to the car till the corn was brought in. Scrap that idea. Rich and our friend talked and decided that we would ride to Alton IL. It's about a 5 1/2 hour ride by interstate. Then ride back on the Great River Road to Savanna and then head home. When these two make plans things never seem to work out for everyone. We packed for two nights out, thinking we would spend Saturday night in Alton and then spend Sunday riding along the river and take our time spending the night somewhere along the way.

When we got to Alton and found a room for the night and started talking about the next days plans we found out that they wanted to be home before dark on Sunday. This was never talked about when they planned the trip and we ended up riding the River Road to highway 100 and heading north to the interstate and heading home.

Then I hear from his wife...I thought we were taking the River Road up to Savanna and then heading home. I had to explain to her that it would take 7 1/2 hours with no stopping to get from Alton to Savanna on the River Road. Then another 2 1/2 hours from Savanna home, adding in time for fueling and lunch, it would be pretty late when we got home. On top of which, they didn't want to leave the hotel till 9 am. We ended up riding interstate most of the way home. It seemed like a wasted 3 day weekend. Why these two men can't just talk about what they want and try to plan ahead I'll never know. It seems to go this way every time we do something that they plan. Rich thinks we are doing one thing and our Friend thinks we are doing something else. They just don't communicate.

On Monday we went for a short ride with some other Friends and really had a good time.

The weekend started on Saturday with full summer temps of 100 degrees and by Sunday we were wearing full leathers.

It has suddenly become chilly...down right nipply! On the way home from Alton, you could spot some of the leaves changing colors already. I love the fall but I don't like what it leads to. WINTER...UGH!!

If I don't have a job by the time the leaves change, I might just take a car ride some day and head west out Stage Coach Trail and take some fall pix.

My son got teamed up with his dad and they have made several trips to PA, SC, NC, VA, NJ and who knows where else. So far, so good. I'm glad he is with his dad, I know they will watch out for each other. If you happen to see a Star Trucking semi with a skinny short haired red head or a skinny blondish red haired guy driving, wish them a safe trip for me.

The next few weekends are going to be busy. Saturday we are going on a long ride then the firemans dance, and Sunday is the town parade, car show, corn boil, etc. The next Saturday is our annual bon fire party. We have every weekend booked on the calendar for this month and have started on next month.

Rich is planning to take a week off work just to work on his 68 Roadrunner. He is really getting motivated to work on it.

Some time this fall we will be starting to remodel the downstairs. I'm not sure if we will start in the kitchen first or the office and living room. The kitchen floor needs to be ripped out completely, it has three layers to it and the cabinets need to be replaced. The ceilings in the office and living room have to come down and the wood foors have to be refinished. We need to do something with the walls in all three rooms. Between the trains being so close and the earthquake we had a couple years ago, every piece of drywall has cracks in them. We are thinking about maybe adobe finishing so it wont show so much when the trains do their dirty work.

My coffee is getting cold, I have a ton of reading for school and my grandson has a bass ball game tonight, if I want to go to that, I need to get busy reading.

Till next time...safe riding to all!