Our first get away for 2010

This may get a little long, I'm going to update it as our weekend progresses.
Hope you enjoy it, I know we will!

We loaded up the camper and headed out to Oregon Il, Lowden State Park, about an hour and half from the house.

My little cubby hole, Melissa reading and relaxing with TJ & Orion.

Early Morning TJ

Melissa and her fought over the couch last night, I guess that's why I like my cubby hole up high.

One of main reasons beside re-couping our sanity for coming out this weekend is to stop by the Soap Lady in Oregon Il.

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We were able to stop at the soap shop today and Melissa was enjoying the scent of the soaps

$60 bucks later and a whole lotta soap to last for a while I had to drag her out of there, no not really, Lynnel was enjoyable and as always pleasant to talk to.

We ended the day with burgers on the grille and a nice warm fire

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I don't sleep much and I can't lay in bed so TJ and I went for an early morning walk

and found a spring, looks like its been around and known about

TJ just had an itch to scratch

Then back up the stairs, man I didn't relize how out of shape I was until I got to the top!

TJ was like com'on slow poke, MOVE IT.

After breakfast we packed up and headed over to White Pines State Park

I couldn't keep TJ out of the water

Melissa and Orion. All I had was my camera phone.

On our way home we stopped at Sam's in Byron, Il to get Cony Dogs.

All in all it was a relaxing trip, got our minds off the business, family and the economy. Spent some quality time together and with our Dogs. Now back to reality.

Just TJ

TJ look'n like, go ahead I dare ya!

She has come a long way; I still don't trust her around other dogs. The best part is the Tow Truck company next to us is afraid of her and with Melissa sometimes at the office alone that a good thing. All you have to say is TJ Scum buckets and she goes ballistic.

March 24, 2010 Murphy...

Murphy is a major part of our family for more than 18 years and more now than ever since the kids have started life in different directions and Melissa and I spend more time with ourselves and our Animals. Murphy has a personality of his own, stubborn, energetic and just fun. He was brought home from Ant Kay's place in Mississippi just weeks old and has always kept that wild side in him active but Murphy lately has not been doing good, about 3 months ago we took him to the vet after noticing a severe wait loss and him wondering around the house just screaming at the top of his lungs at all hours of the night. We were told he had the onset of Alzheimer’s and even worse his kidneys were shutting down and it was only a matter of time. Melissa has taken him of the dry food cause he is not able to digest it and ends up throwing it up, he is still extremely active, batting TJ in the face every chance he gets. It will be a sad day when we have to let Murphy go and it seams to be getting closer to that time.

Bumpers are in

Melissa sent out Dad's bumpers for the Maverick to have them repaired and re-chromed and they came in the other day. The rear bumper looked great but Melissa wasn't happy with the front one so it went back a total of two times before it looked good enough for her.

Not cheap either, but you gotta love nice shiny chrome!

The Money Bike

The money Bike

The bike was brought to me unfinished, the artist that started the bike has a great talent but is a waste, it took him almost 8 months to get it roughed out and all he did was layed out the true flames on the money decals and airbrushed the skull on the tank. Steve @ Xtreme did the money in decals, I cleared it several times for depth and finished the graphics with gold leaf decal and hand striped it.

Dad's Maverick

Well we have the majority of the body work done and ready for primer on Dad's Maverick.

WoW load in

March 5 2010
I loaded up Crusty yesterday and went to Rosemont for the World of Wheels load in. I had forgotten how much I missed doing this, the whole show thing, loading in meeting old friends I haven't seen in years helping set up displays; it was enjoyable, not work. This year seems to have a lot of cars and not just your usual show junk but some high quality vehicles. It runs through Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Crusty at World of Wheels

This is my Pinstriping instructor Bill Jarvis "Jive"standing next to Crusty