Cedar Rapids, Iowa

5/3/09 We arrived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is Joe, Mallery, and my home town. Now on the road almost 7 months, it was good to be home to see familiar things. I love the springs in Iowa. All the flowering trees were in bloom and the grass so soft and green. Mallery loved being home. She loved running and rubbing and rolling in the grass. She just hated southern grass. When she walked in it, she carefully tiptoed around. Our 1st night was at the east side Wal-mart. We parked the Nest, and went to see my mom.

5/4/09 - 5/7/09
Today we are taking the Nest to Kettleson which is a RV dealership. We have several things that need to be fixed and checked out. The Nest was done and ready to go by 5:00PM, but Joe had this great idea to ask if we could stay in their parking lot for a few days. We were told we could stay for 4 days and then would have to move. During the day, we would run to mom's and take showers, then run to all our appointments ( doctors, dentist, chiropractor, and etc.). We had many errands we needed to do while in town, for ourselves and our mom's.

5/8/09
When Kettleson kicked us out we went back to Wal-Mart for another night.

5/9/08
Our next backyard was going to be at Kay's, (Joe's mom's condo). Kay had asked someone on the condo board if we could park our Nest in the parking lot, while we stayed at her place for a week. The guy she asked said he would get back to her, but thought it would not be a problem. When we got there, no one had gotten back to her, so we just went ahead and parked off to the side of the parking lot. We took many loads of our stuff, up to her 3rd floor condo, through the lobby and locked doors, and up the elevator. The next day Kay was gone and the phone rang. I answered it. Some man on the other end asked if I was the party that had the monstrosity out in the parking lot and if we had permission to be parked there. At that point, I politely told him, I thought we did, but I would let him talk to my husband. When Joe got on the phone, he politely tried to explain that we were here for mothers day, from out of town (we live in the great USA now) and no one had gotten back to his mother yet. This guy went crazy on the phone, (I could hear him from the couch) and he told Joe we would be out by tomorrow. To make a long story short, the President of the board called Kay and apologized for the residents behavior, but said it was in the bi-laws, that RV's could not be parked in the parking lot. He also said, tomorrow a business was going to be painting yellow parking lines in the parking lot anyway, and all vehicles had to be move out by 7:00 AM. We found out later by a long time resident, that this rude guy had recently moved in on the 14 top penthouse floor. She said, because he had not been living in the condo's very long, he would probably chill out in time. (Put in my words) So that night we had to find a new place to park. On Mothers Day, Joe and I separated, each spending the day with our mothers, going to church with them, and doing whatever they wanted to do.

5/11/09 - 5/17/09
Thank goodness for good friends! Joe's best man at our wedding, Drew, had told us we could park our beast out on his acreage, while in town. So Joe called him up and asked if we could bring it out a week sooner. We stayed at Joe's mom's, while the Nest was out at Drew's. Even though we drug so much stuff up to Kay's, we kept finding ourselves needing stuff that was in our Nest out at Drew's, which was a good 20 minutes there and 20 minutes back.

5/18/09 to 5/19/09
Our next move was to my mom's driveway. She also lives in a condo. We know we are lucky to be able to park there for 2 days. When we first moved out of our home, we parked the Nest there for about 5 days, getting ready to leave town. By the 4th day we were getting complaints from mom's neighbors. Our daughter Tiffany and our new grandson, flew into town for a wedding. Blake's ( Tiffany's boyfriend and Lennox's dad) parent's flew them in so they could see Lennox. They were going to be staying at mom's for a few days, so I wanted to be there too. With mom's condo being 2 bedroom, we needed the nest in the driveway, for an extra bed.

Mom and Lennox, my nanababy