Apple Time of the Year

(Scott AFB, IL)  Hi 80 Lo 59 -- Clouds during the morning and perfect afternoon.  I slept till 10:00 this morning.  I've had to get up too early the last two mornings and it felt good to catch up on sleep.

We decided to get a few things done that we've been putting off till this week. My military ID card expires next June, and we thought I'd be able to get a new one today while we're here on base. We went to the base Pass and ID office and when we walked in there were people everywhere. That didn't take long... we turned around and walked right back out. We'll either try again later this week or wait until we're back here next April. We then dropped off a copy of our RV insurance policy with a friend of ours who was our insurance agent years ago when we lived in this area. We're happy with our policy, but it won't hurt to see what she can do for us when it expires in March.

Next we headed to Eckert's Farm in Belleville. That's where we had lunch with Butch and Ruth a week ago. They have apple orchards and it's picking season. In fact you can pay them for the privilege of picking your own apples. Pay money to pick apples? I don't think so. I'm sure the apples they're selling in their store are just as fresh as the ones you pick. So after we had a tasty lunch in their deli, we did some shopping. There's a new hybrid apple they have called Jonagold. It's a mix of Jonathon and Golden Delicious. We tried a sample and it was really juicy and sweet! We bought a few of those, and also a few Fiji's, which we've never heard of. I also got a little tub of caramel (for dipping), and Jim got a box of fresh gooey butter cookies, and we both got a pastry for breakfast tomorrow... somebody stop us please!  :)

Eckert's Farm



One of the apple orchards.

As we were leaving we saw this trailer. Yes, those are camels! We have no idea what they were there for or where they going.

Here's a few of the apples. On the left are Jonagolds and on the right are Fijis.


We came back home and Jim did the laundry. The high today was around 80 and it got a little warm inside. But it's uncomfortable for only a couple of hours before the temperature starts dropping. We're trying to condition ourselves to tolerating warmer weather. Eighty is about the highest outside temperature before we'll turn on the a/c. The temperatures have been quite nice the last couple of nights with a couple of windows open. We're also looking forward to full hookups. We're trying to last until we leave next Tuesday before we dump, so we're in conservation mode on our tanks. Tank management is just one of the trade offs in the full time lifestyle, but it's worth it!