First of all, I am so humbled by all of the amazing comments and shared stories on my introspective post over the weekend about giving yourself permission to live life on your terms. It’s always a bit vulnerable feeling to open up like that, and I’m so glad I did. So thank you for that.
And now it’s time to bring you up to date on where our summer brings us after the Alaskan adventure.
St. Louis Housesitting
We arrived back to St. Louis by plane, and immediately dropped Chris’ parents off at the airport. They had a trip to make themselves, and the timing worked out wonderfully for us to take care of their dog Molly.
It was also the perfect way to end such a big adventure. As fun as it was, it was a lot of motion and a lot of stays in new places ranging from our own accommodations to being guests of very gracious hosts.
It was so nice to know we’d be returning to a house to ourselves to just chill. Well, chill in the heat and humidity, but decompress nonetheless.
We bing watched some of our TV shows. We sucked up ample bandwidth to catch up on some projects. We made amends with Kiki for being gone so long.
And we did a whole lot of nothing. Which was precisely what we needed.
We also all got caught up on our dental care.
We’ve used the same family dentist in St. Louis for a few years now, and luck would have it that we could get our “annual’ check-ups and cleaning done. It had actually been three years since either of us had been – but we both got A+’s on our exams.
For Kiki’s veterinary care, we use Banfield Pet Hospitals, which are in most Petsmarts around the country. We love their Wellness Plan, in which we pay about $300/year which includes all of her vaccinations, office visits, bloodwork twice a year and a dental cleaning.
But best of all, her records are centralized and any Banfield clinic we visit can pick up where the last office left off. (Why can’t we humans be so lucky?)
We went ahead and scheduled her first cleaning at the St. Louis clinic.
We were nervous parents all day long, pacing circles around the house. But the doctors at Banfield were awesome keeping us in informed, and easing our fears. Her cleaning was easy, and she came out like a champ with clean chompers too.
Our time in St. Louis went by incredibly fast – once Chris’ parents returned there was much wonderful catching up.
And we also had a few blog readers & friends passing through town that we enjoyed meeting up with.
I also celebrated my 42nd birthday last week. One perk of actually being at a known somewhere for a special occasion is that loved ones can surprise you with flower deliveries.
And it was kinda nice to celebrate with family around to share the day with.. so many of our birthdays are on our own.
Chris and I topped the evening off with a date night at The Muny, a classic outdoor theatre running since 1919 in Forest Park. We caught a production of the musical ‘Beauty and the Beast’, which was just awesomely done.
Onward… to the bus!
More than two months has gone by since we dropped our bus off in Elkhart at MasterTech RV for the summer projects.
In our ideal world, we would have left St. Louis and moved right back into our home. Perhaps wrapping up a few small projects about now. That was the plan anyway.
The bus is nowhere near finished, some unexpected bigger than anticipated issues have come up and status updates had become few and far between.
We felt it was time to be onsite.
So earlier this week we left Kiki behind again in St. Louis to head on up and get a look ourselves.
We’ll update soon on the status of the bus, and what the projection for completion is.
But first I wanted to get a quick update out about our time in St. Louis.
A very happy 42nd birthday, Cherie!!!
I just want to say Yeah Banfield! My cousin is a Banfield vet.
Glad you were able to get back into familiar surroundings and rest up after your Alaska adventures. Your bus will be ready soon and it will be time to plan the next step in your adventure.
Happy Birthday!!
Glad you got to decompress after your great adventure!! Hope you are in your bus soon and the issues are resolved quickly and cheaply.
Sounds like a perfect “return” even with the bus delay. Having familiar space and services makes for a very nice transition.
It certainly did make for a great transition for us.
Could almost hear the “sigh” while you were stationary for a few days! LOL I think you are right to get onsite for the bus reno – time to kick em in the buns and I can’t wait to see the results as I’m sure it will be worth the wait!
The time away was certainly much needed… but being onsite is key to keeping the bus project moving.
You all did an engine overhaul 2 years ago. Now it looks like an interior update,rust mitigation,and repaint.
Oh!! And I forgot, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHERIE!!!
So excited to see the bus, whenever it gets done! Sounds like you’ve had a fulfilling time in St Louis. Kiki does not look impressed by that moose! How did she take your return? My cats start off indifferent (“Oh, were you gone? Fill the food bowl now that you’re back.”), then a few days later it’s all snuggles (“Where have you been?! I missed you so much. Let’s never part again and fill the food bowl. Now.”). Lol!!
Hahaha… yeah, that pretty much wraps up Kiki’s attitude to our return. But we sure do love our little fur ball.
We really enjoyed our dinner!
Thanks again for noticing we were nearby and inviting us out! Was so much fun to get to know you both better.
Typical home improvment project, takes twice as long and costs twice as much! 😉
(ouch!)
Ooo… if it’s only twice as long, we should be out of here any day now 🙂