Author: bbpeck

While we haven’t been blogging of late, we are staying busy at our repeat housesit in Des Moines for Bebe. We’ve been going to doctor’s appointments (Bob), getting dental work done and going to PT (Beth), getting our Iowa drivers licenses, getting work done on the car, and we even had an unexpected trip to the vet with Bebe (minor issue and all good now). Bob has also had some quick visits with family and was able to spend time with his mom on her birthday this week. Whew!

The weather has been gorgeous, so we have been getting some walks in as well, mostly exploring the neighborhood. Today though, we made a quick 10 minute drive to Raccoon River Park to check out a non-concrete trail that had been recommended to us. We walked 3.2 miles around an asphalt and crushed rock path around Blue Heron Lake in the park.

The park was very nice with many different types of facilities.

Bob has been holding down the fort in our housesit in Des Moines while I was in Austin, but as of about 9:30 last night we’re back together. We are caring for the adorable Bebe in the Waukee area of Des Moines that we had housesat for back in December. This time, we’re here until March 3 while her humans are spending some warm time in Punta Gorda, Florida.

Before all the Super Bowl game hoopla got started, Bob and I walked some of the paths through our temporary neighborhood. It’s a great, quiet neighborhood with a lot of impressive homes.

It’s been a great trip back to Austin. It would have been better if Bob were here too, but it’s been fun to catch up with old friends, check out the changes to the city, and care for some sweet cats in a great old Austin neighborhood. I leave about midday tomorrow and will connect back up with Bob tomorrow evening at the Des Moines airport.

Here’s a last look at this visit to Austin.

There are a number of things that I love about our former home of Austin, Texas, but nothing more (excluding friends of course) than the 10.1 mile trail around Lady Bird Lake, also known as Town Lake (actually a dammed section of the Colorado River but not the famous one). I walked it today on a beautiful 70F degree sunny day in February.

The trail and the buildings around the trail have changed quite a bit since Bob and I first started running here and are continuing to change to meet the needs of the ever growing population. Bob and I have been blessed to walk and run on trails around the world, but this trail will always hold a special place in my heart, as it transformed me from non-athlete to long distance runner.

See below for views of the trail and downtown Austin.

Yesterday, I flew to Austin to housesit for friends of ours. I will be caring for two cats,Lefty and Pancho, while their people go to a show in Vegas and then head to Tahoe for an annual ski trip with friends and family. Bob is in Des Moines with family for a couple of days before starting a month long housesit on 2/1.

While I’m in Austin I’m hoping to connect with old friends and assess how much the city has grown since we were last here in December of 2022. I had a great visit with our friends yesterday after they picked me up at the airport and before I took them to the airport this morning. It was fun to discuss our respective plans for the year, and it’s great to be back in 70 F weather!

Tonight I hosted (with the home owner’s permission) four of my friends from Austin. We missed having Sandy there with us, but we had a great time catching up.

So good to reconnect with good friends!!

It’s been quite awhile since we have blogged and a lot has happened. We finished our Des Moines house sit (the one with the steep driveway). That ended up being our winter resilience building houses it as we had lots of shoveling, snow blowing, and other winter driveway work in sub zero weather. However, the home was warm and comfy and the dogs were super sweet, so we fared well and managed to get to some previously scheduled doctor’s appointments.

Since we left that housesit, we have been visiting family and friends (all in the Des Moines area) in short trips so that we don’t put anyone out too much. The first stop was with our nephew Zack and his fiancée Maggie. We had a great visit and even got to celebrate the news of Maggie’s acceptance into a pediatric dental program.

Then we headed to our friend Doug’s new home in a former church that they have transformed into condos while leaving some of the original building. Bob and I also walked to the nearby Art Center to check that out. Very impressive and Bob found a big head for a photo.

Another great visit! Bob cooked one night, and Doug treated the next and introduced us to a new (to us) game, Connect, that Bob and I are now playing, though only semi successfully at this point.

Then we visited our friends, Steve and Steph, and Doug came over as well. We had a great music and dart-filled night with lots of good memories and future happenings to discuss.

Bob and I are now apart for 10 days or so. More on that tomorrow. . .

After a great time in Naperville, Illinois, to celebrate our great nephew’s 1st birthday, Bob and I returned to Des Moines just in time for the season’s first big snowfall.

Starting Monday afternoon through yesterday afternoon, we received over 9 inches of snow and travel has now become more of an adventure than we’d like. However, we carefully drove the 6 miles from Bob’s sister’s house where we were staying to a hotel that would be closer to our current house sit to facilitate our travel to the new home yesterday, late afternoon for the walk through.

We had a great walk through with the homeowners and two of their three young children. We will be caring for their 2 golden retrievers, Bay and Mesa, while they head off for a Disney Cruise.

While we have a few doctors appointments scheduled during the sit, it’s unlikely we will be going out to do more than that for the next few days, as more snow and then sub-zero temperatures are in the forecast.

Bob and I had a relaxing stay in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. We were honored to be accepted by Jupiter and Bruno Mars to allow us to feed them and we were able to connect a bit with family while exploring a bit of the area.

Today (Thursday 1/4/24), we left Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, for Lincolnshire, Illinois. Since we have platinum membership in the Marriott hotel program, we have landed in a Marriott resort in Lincolnshire, IL. This has placed us near Naperville, IL, where we need to be for the 1 year birthday party for our great nephew. But it also allowed us to see “Beautiful“ which is a musical about Carole King. Lots of great music!

Bob and I had a nice walk today on the path that runs along the Menomonee River. Today, we walked on it away from downtown so were able to see both Lime Kiln Park and Rotary Park. We saw probably 6 or 7 other people out walking on the trail either by themselves or with their dogs.

We started the walk at the end of our street, which is in Lime Kiln Park. This is a 19 acre park on both sides of the Menomonee River from Main Street to Arthur Avenue. It is named after the Garwin Mace Lime Kilns which operated on this site in the late 19th century. The kilns were used to produce lime to be mixed with sand and water to make mortar for construction. Nothing like getting educated on a walk!

I was interested in the sign below, as our current homeowner is quite a bird lover. Bird City Wisconsin (per their website) is a nonprofit organization that provides public recognition to municipalities that understand that nature, including birds, is vital to healthy communities. The organization supports municipalities in their efforts to protect and manage green spaces, educate their citizens, build nesting structures, landscape with native plants, and reduce threats to birds. Bird City Wisconsin has 96 registered members.

Bob and I have officially landed in the village of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. It has a population of 39,000 and actually does have a falls (created by a dam). It is also the headquarters of the Kohl’s Department Stores.

We will be coexisting with two very cute but mostly human-averse cats, so mostly we’ll be putting out food and cleaning the litter box. The lighter colored one is Jupiter, and he is definitely the friendlier of the two. He has sat in the hallway and watched us and has let me put treats in his vicinity as long as I move away after that. The black one, Bruno Mars, has no need to be near us and I was thrilled to even be able to get the photo of him below. This is a 2 story house with a full basement, and Bruno spends much of his time in the basement ceiling — even for his owner.

Yesterday after we arrived, we mostly caught up on laundry and other items that we neglected over the holidays, but today we got out into the misty rain to check out a bit of the downtown and then head to Target for items for dinner and a new umbrella for Bob. it was an easy walk up our street onto a path along the Menomonee River into downtown.