Back to Shawnee

I was able to fly down to Shawnee and our new home over the holidays. I was glad to be able to do so as New Years Eve was also our 23rd anniversary. My flight out was Dec. 24th. It was an evening flight out of Portland to St. Louis Missouri with a connecting flight in Charlotte, North Carolina. My friends Pam and Cierra were taking care of my dog Bubba while I was gone. And my parents were taking care of my dog Zephyr. When I dropped Zephyr off with my parents, they offered to drive me down to the airport so I wouldn't have to pay to park my car. I got to the airport in good time. I had been worried about cancelled flights due to some really bad weather across the country on the 23rd. But, the weather had settled a bit and all flights were going out. We were having unusually warm weather in the east. The west was having bad cold and snow storms. The airport was like a ghost town being Christmas Eve. I only had carry on bags so no luggage to check and got through security very quickly. I settled in to wait for my flight and enjoyed snacking on the chex mix Pam had made for me to take along. It was soon posted that my flight would be leaving 30 minutes late. This turned out to be due to mandatory rest time for crew and some crew change over. You'd think this sort of thing would have been figured in. I was a bit worried as I only had 45 min. between my flights. The flight was uneventful but as we were landing, I was very worried about my connecting flight. Charlotte's airport is big and my arrival gate and my departing gate were NOT close. It was going to take me 10 or more minutes just to get from one to the other. And when we landed, we sat on the runway for awhile before we were allowed in and could disembark. When I got off the plane, I hustled as fast as I could to the departure gate for my next flight but sure enough, I'd missed the flight by 5 minutes. AAAGGGHHH!  A majority of the passengers on my flight had missed their connecting flights also. So, we lined up at American Airlines customer service desk. There were no more flights out that night. So, AA arranged to put us all up in hotels for the night and gave us meal vouchers. I was sent to the Sleep Inn. The shuttle van for the hotel picked us up at the airport. The shuttle van driver was a tiny, petite, older woman and what a sweet heart she was. It was getting pretty late and most of us hadn't had anything to eat. The driver told us if we were willing to wait for her to make her last trip to the airport, she knew of a restaurant that was open all night. About the only place in town she told us. We jumped at the offer. She took one group over on the way back to the airport. She picked up me and two others and took us the the restaurant after her last trip from the airport. It was me, an rather large lady and mother of 7 or 8 children and a young gentleman of 30 who was very gracious about being stuck with two not so hot woman for dinner. The other woman  was nice but kind of the "glass half empty" kind of person. The food was good and we actually had quite an enjoyable evening for 3 people that were not where they wanted to be on Christmas Eve. On the way back to the hotel, the shuttle driver took us to a 24 hrs. Walgreens so we could pick up a few things.

Many of us had to be back at the airport very early in the morning. The hotels breakfast isn't normally put out until 7:00 am. But the shuttle driver made sure to get things all set out for those of us that had to leave early. She was just such a wonderful woman. I was back to the airport early and again, there were not many people there so got through security very quickly. The flight too off on time and I made it to St. Louis at last. Fred arrived shortly after I did and it was so good to see him.We stopped at a truck stop for lunch. There weren't many choices, most places were closed with it being Christmas day. It was such a lovey day so on the way home, we stopped at Garden of the Gods. Fred had not been there yet and it's pretty close to our house.

 

It was so nice to get back to the new house. Fred had the place nice and clean which I really appreciated. We walked up onto the upper field and our neighbor was outside and came over to chat. She seems to be a nice woman. We talked about fences as I'll be putting one up for my equines. She said they would also be putting one up. Doesn't make sense to put up two fences but I guess they can do what they want. And I don't think the property line between us is marked out property. And the mistake is not in our favor.


 I started right away with unpacking boxes that we just had not had time to get to when we made the move. Both of the spare bedrooms were full of boxes still. Though the week, I got most of the boxes unpacked, pictures and decorations on the walls and around the house. We made multiple trips to Walmart in both Harrisburg, IL and Morganfield, KY as well as to the hardware store to get curtains, storage totes so we could store some things in the garage and various other miscellaneous  items. On Monday we stopped at the County Clerks office and got a copy of the neighbors deed. After reading over our deed I was even more sure that our south property line is not marked out right and we need to get that sorted out before anyone puts up any fences. We went to Marion, KY on Monday and found a real nice furniture store where we purchased a queen bed for one spare room and a really nice coffee table for the living room which they delivered on Wed. We went home via the Cave-in-Rock ferry. That was fun and it's free. Tuesday I put up a wall paper boarder in one of the spare rooms. It was boarder that I'd bought for the house in Bowdoin and never put up. Apparently the paste on it has an expiration date.... one roll was opened and would not stick at all! The other rolls that had never been opened did stick eventually but it was quite a chore to get it up. I had to use copious amounts of water, then a sponge with more water, then a little more water......and then use a towel and wipe over it again and again to get it to lay flat on the wall. I fully expected to see it all laying on the floor the next morning. Much to my delight it wasn't and was still on the walls when I left. When the furniture arrived on Wed. we got the spare room set up and we are now ready for guests.

I really love the house now that I've got things the way I want them and have had some time to enjoy being there. I love the open concept of it. I love the way the light come in through the sliding glass door in the morning onto the kitchen table. There are things that need updating like the counter tops and bathroom vanities. And there is too much carpeting. But otherwise, the house is in good shape and has been well cared for. The coffee table we bought is so nice and perfect for people like us that tend to eat supper in the living room. The top lifts up to table height and it has 4 drawers for storage.

Entry door, bathroom to the left

Little hallway between the spare bedrooms

 

Fireplace. We are going to get another Canadian Rocker to put in front of the fireplace

Dining area, Kitchen and laundry room

 

Master bedroom and master bathroom (below)

 It rained and rained and rained the first 3 days I was there. There was some bad flooding on the western side of the state. Anthony had planned to come down for the week with some mules so we could ride. But he ended up working all week moving prisoners from a max. security facility because of the flooding. When the weather cleared, Fred and I hiked the Rim Rock trail which is only a few miles from our house. It was lovely!

 below is a box spring in Ox-Lot cave

New years Eve we went out to eat at the Red Onion in Equality. It's a really nice restaurant that we've been to before. They were having live music that night and we thought it would be a nice way to celebrate not only New Years Eve, but also our 23rd anniversary. We decided to go early as we know that there can be quite a waiting line sometimes to get in. Fred ordered the "seafood platter". We got quite a chuckle out of the seafood platter consisting of catfish, frogs legs, hush puppies and Shrimp. Well, at least the shrimp came from the sea! Neither of us had ever had frog legs before so I had to take a taste. It was not bad.

I spent a lot of time walking all over our property during the week. I spent quite a bit of time trying to find the boundary pins and did find two, but not on the side I most wanted to find them. And the rest of the time I spent wandering the property just getting familiar with it and envisioning how I wanted to put the barn and where the paddocks would be. The more I walked it, the more I liked and and saw more potential for it than I originally had.

A Honey Locust Tree along the back creek. Not something I'd want to stumble into in the dark!

I did get to go riding one day I was there!! There is a couple, Keith and Sandy Kibler, here in Shawnee that do endurance riding with gaited horses. I got to know them though a facebook group. So, I sent a message to Keith to see if he was riding over the weekend and if he might have a horse to spare. He was and he did. A group of his friends were riding out of the Honey Hole in Simpson, about a 45 min drive west of our house. What a great group of people. There were 5 men and 3 women in the group including myself. The horse I was given to ride was the most wonderful Missouri Fox Trotter gelding. He was 22 years old but I sure would not have know it if Keith had not told me. His name was Blues and I had the best time riding him. He is the first truly gaited horse I've ridden. He knew his job and he did it well. He was forward, bold and sure footed. I did not think you could ride those trails as fast as we did with those gaited horses. We flew down through the trails, sailed over downed logs and around switchbacks. It was so much fun. We stopped and had lunch at Jackson Hole. It was a beautiful spot and a beautiful day. Two of the riders were over 70, both cancer survivors and such an inspiration to see them out riding like they were.

On Sunday, JoJo and I had planned to go riding. But, her horses and mule accidentally got turned out into her big pasture and were pretty determined to not be caught. It was a beautiful day so I went hiking out on the trails by my house and hiked to Blacks Cabin. The cabin is actually just across a field from my house but I wanted to see what the trails were like. There is a very pretty view from the cabin at the top of the field.

Black's Cabin

I hated to have to leave on Monday. My flight wasn't until later in the evening so we made one more trip to the County Clerks office to get a copy of another deed to try to work out the boundary lines, put in a call to a surveyor and then went home and packed. We headed for St. Louis, MO a little after 1:00 pm. and stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel just outside of St. Louis. My flight from St. Louis left right on time and I arrived in DC safely. My flight from DC to Portland boarded on time and we got all the way out to the runway, then had to go back to the terminal. The forgot to load some of the luggage. So I ended up arriving in Portland a little more then 30 minutes late. My brother Dennis came to pick me up. When I left Illinois, there was green grass growing on my lawn...... when I arrived in Portland it was 12 degrees and the ground was covered in snow. YUCK! And I'd never thought to have anyone plow my driveway while I was gone. So, Dennis had to drop me off by the road and I had to hike up the steep driveway to the house. But, I made it safely and that was all that mattered. If it were not for all my animals being in Maine still, I'm not sure I could have made myself come back.